Harry Potter and the Winter's Child
by MartinDC
Summary: Harry was abandoned in London at the age of six by his Uncle Vernon. He manages to find his way to Diagon Alley, and while there becomes friends with Daphne Greengrass. Watch as their lives become intertwined, and their destinies unfold.
1. Chapter 1

Winter of 1986 wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It got cold in October and frost started covering the ground. In November it started to snow. At first, it would snow and then melt, snow and then melt. Then one night it snowed and didn't melt. November turned to December and the snow got deeper. The cold stayed cold, but with the holiday season just around the corner, most people simply bundled up and smiled while running cheerfully from errand to errand.

After the holidays January snuck in and with it the cold turned bitter. For most people, both wizard and muggle, this simply meant hurrying about your task and getting back inside as quickly as you could, the cold, bitter nights to be endured with thoughts of a warm spring just around the corner. March was coming soon, and with it slightly warmer weather. So most people merely turned their thoughts towards better days to come and went about their business. Most people that is, except Harry Potter.

Little Harry Potter was currently huddled down behind a dumpster wearing only a threadbare coat. The harsh and bitter winds caused his perpetually messy hair to whip back and forth sometimes covering a jagged scar on his forehead, sometimes leaving it exposed. Harry had been on his own since early October when his Uncle Vernon had driven him to London and dumped him in a back alley the afternoon after he had turned his teacher's hair blue. Well, blue because it was also covered in a 'crown' of ice. He had been told to go find his own kind and not bother their normal lives again.

Harry wasn't certain, but he guessed his Uncle had hoped that he would simply die and never be seen again. If Harry had been a normal boy he would have certainly perished by now. Mid-January is certainly a hard time for anyone to be outside at all, let alone a small child, with no real protection from the cold, to be out in the cold all day and night. But Harry wasn't a normal child. Harry liked the cold. The cold was a comfortable blanket to be wrapped around one's self, to draw strength from, to hide the hurt, and to swallow the tears. The cold bitter wind spoke to Harry, called to him, whispered sweet promises he longed to hear. The cold was a friend to young Harry Potter, and kept him company on the long, dark winter nights when his stomach was empty, and his heart was heavy with loneliness.

Today Harry was watching a strange pub across the street. He was trying to understand why certain people would walk in, and then not come back out. These people were all dressed very strangely as well. It looked like most everyone was wearing dresses. And hats…tall, pointy weird looking hats. But the people who were dressed in what Harry would consider as normal clothes didn't seem to even notice the pub and walked right on by without a second thought.

Harry waited a while longer and made his way across the street. He had seen a large family coming down the street dressed in dresses, and he hoped if he got behind them he could slip with them into the pub unnoticed and see exactly what was going on. Harry had been watching the pub for several days trying to figure out what was in the pub, and why it was calling him. Calling him like whispers in the dark, full of comfort and promise.

Harry stepped behind the family of red heads and walked as normally as possible. He kept himself close enough to seem to be a part of the group, but just far enough away to not attract their attention.

"Fred, George? Keep up!" The two boys he was walking behind stopped staring at a window and moved to rejoin their family.

Upon entering the pub the family and Harry made their way to the back of the pub. The mother of the family took out a stick and touched the wall. Harry's eyes grew round as the wall seemed to melt and became a doorway into an alley beyond.

'Well that answers that question' Harry thought. At least now he knew why some people never seemed to leave the pub after going in. Harry discreetly followed the family out into the alley. As he was walking, the youngest child of the family, a girl of 4 or 5 looked at him with a frown. Her eyes were drawn to his forehead and her eyes widened in surprise. Before she could do more than look, Harry had slipped away from the family and made his way out into the alley and lost himself amongst the people that were running their evening errands.

Harry hid behind some boxes in a short dead end alley and waited for the family to walk by.

"I saw him mommy! I saw Hawwy Powter!" It was the young red head.

"Such an imagination Ginerva!" The girl's mother scolded her gently.

"I did! I did mommy!" Harry could tell she was getting angry. He pressed himself deeper behind the boxes he was hiding behind and waited for the family to leave. Harry waited until he was sure they were gone, and then left his hiding spot and went to explore this strange new world he had found.

It was much later, after Harry had managed to find some food for his stomach, that Harry returned to the alley he had started thinking of as his spot. Further back in the alley he had found the wreckage of a small shop that looked like it had been burned out years before and not repaired. In the back of the shop there was a door that was slightly ajar, and behind the door was a small closet that had what looked like some old dresses that Harry could make a comfortable bed out of for the night. Here Harry settled down and fell asleep with dreams of further exploration running through his head.

-DCM-

It was late January, and Daphne Greengrass was walking with her mother and younger sister Astoria down Diagon Alley. The cold was still strong, but her mother had cast several warming charms on her daughters.

"Hurry along girls, we are meeting your father for lunch." Daphne smiled. She loved her father, Lord Cygnus Greengrass. He was a very important and busy man. He held a seat on the governing council of the wizarding world, the Wizengamot, and was the owner/operator of a thriving import/export business. That he was taking time out of his busy day to have dinner with his wife and two daughters showed how much he loved them. Yes, Daphne loved her father.

As she was walking she noticed a small boy run down the street and duck into a small alley. He had to be only 5, maybe 6 at the most. Nowhere near her 7 years of age. She thought of this as being quite odd. Small children were always accompanied by adults in Diagon Alley. There were too many hags and dark creatures in Knockturn Alley that may take the chance to snatch them if they were alone.

As her family passed the small alley where the boy had gone, she looked to see if she could see him. What she saw was a pair of captivating emerald green eyes staring back at her from around an empty crate that had been dumped in the alley. Caught in the boy's stare she didn't notice her mother and sister turn a corner until she bumped into someone coming the other way.

"Sorry!" she hurriedly exclaimed, looking around for her mother and sister.

"Daphne!" Her mother called from down the street, almost to the eating establishment they were meeting their father at.

"Coming mother!" Daphne called back. She quickly looked around, but didn't see the green eyed boy she had been staring at a moment ago. Sighing, she turned and ran to her mother.

-DCM-

Harry looked back around the crate he was hiding behind and watched the blonde girl catch up to her family. She had such pretty hair, and her eyes were a shade of violet he didn't think he had ever seen before. In a word she was pretty. Not pretty like a grown woman, or a mother smiling at her child is pretty. But pretty like a cold frost in fall with the promise of more to come. That was how he described her. Sunshine through an icicle. He hoped he would see her again.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I apologize for not putting a disclaimer on my first chapter, and will do my best to remember to include it in future chapters. I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: This will not be a typical 'Daphne and family' take Harry in and help him grow into a great wizard. I have read many of those types of stories and enjoyed them very much. I want to take this story in a different and unexpected direction, one that is new and unseen before. Will there be Harry and Daphne mush? Duh yes (no lemons – if my kids can't read it, I won't write it). Will there be tears of frustration and shouts of victory as Harry beats the odds? Yes. Will there adventure? Yes. Will there be righteous retribution and smacking down of bad guys? Oh yea! I already have the final battle/confrontation outlined.

All I can say is, sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.

Don

-DCM—

Firebrine lay on one his favorite rock in his favorite room of his cavern, soaking up the heat of the eternal flames, deep in thought. For centuries the flames had been whispering of the coming of the Winter's Child. For centuries he had been looking. For centuries the balance had been held by those deep in the earth's crust. Those who flew the cold skies above weren't beaten by any means, but those who basked in the warmth of the flames held the upper hand.

But the flames had begun whispering of change. Unwelcome change. The change of a shifting balance. Change that would begin with the birth of a child. A special child. A child of fate, a child of prophecy, a child of balance.

So Firebrine was pondering as he had for decades. Do we strike the child while helpless? Do we risk the upper hand? What will be the consequences? They had gotten the last Winter's Child, and their opponents hadn't reacted, do they dare do so again?

"MY LORD!" Firebrine's musing was interrupted by one of his priests. "We have found him my Lord! We have found the Winter's Child!" The light of fanaticism gleamed deep in his eyes. "What are your orders my Lord?"

The moment was on him. This was to be one of the few moments in his life that he knew everything was held in the balance. Would he define the moment? Or would the moment define him?

Firebrine paused for only another moment. Then a slow, predatory smile split his serpentine face.

"Strike and kill the child. Make it look like and accident."

"At once my Lord!" The nameless priest ran off to do his Lord's bidding.

'Always define the moment' Firebrine thought to himself as his eyes closed, content in knowledge he had made the right choice. The whispers in the fire were silent, seeming to agree.

-DCM—

Harry was hot. Not just hot, hot and sweaty, miserable, panting, wishing he was frozen. 'Perhaps encapsulated in an iceberg. That would be really nice right now!' Were Harry's stray thoughts.

Harry wiped his forehead on his sleeve and looked around. In the months since he had found Diagon Alley, his life had become better. He had taken to running the odd errands for the shop keepers where he could for a few bronze coins. Once he had even gotten a silver coin from an old witch when he carried her packages to the floo in the pub for her. Mostly he cleaned and worked for Tom in the pub for a meal once a day. Tom was very nice to him and didn't ask questions. Harry was sure Tom knew more than he let on. In fact he had been one of only two people who had seen his scar. Tom's eyes widened slightly before his face settled back into a neutral expression.

"Here lad, if'n you can do me a bit of work around the pub I'll see you get fed. I may even be able to talk the other shop keepers into letting you run errands." Nothing else was said, but Harry soon found himself busy during the day, helping where he could. It was dirty, hot work, but it was better than starving, or stealing food.

Harry put his hat back on his head and made sure it covered his scar. The hat was Daphne's idea. Daphne! Another surprise was how drawn he was to her, and how much her friendship had meant to him. She had come looking for him almost a week after he had first seen her. What had formed was an unlikely friendship. She taught him about being a wizard, and he taught her about being independent. She had once asked if she could tell her parents about him, but he had been reluctant. He hadn't said no, it was more of a 'not yet'. She had accepted it, and they had moved on. More than once, Daphne had come to him with items of clothing, a book or two, and often some food. He had shown her where he was staying so she could find him if she needed to. Daphne had warned him about Knockturn Alley, and Harry had listened and stayed away from the dark alley, especially at night.

Now he was standing across the street from Greengrass Commodities. It was the business that her family owned. She usually came to work with her once or twice a week, usually Tuesdays and Saturdays. Today was no exception. He had watched her enter the building this morning, and she had given him their hand signal letting him know to watch for her when the little hand on the clock pointed strait up. Non or Noon of Noone…whatever. All he knew, was when it did, he was going to get to see his friend soon.

Sure enough, the door opened and out came a blonde streak that ran up to him with a big smile on her face. "James!" she called. This was the name they decided on to help Harry not draw attention to himself. "Are you hungry?"

"Always!" The smile on Harry's face matched her own.

"Good! Let's go eat, my treat!"

"It's always your treat Daph."

"Yep!" Daphne grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the Leaky Cauldron.

After a delicious lunch of fish and chips, the two were walking back towards Daphne's family's business. Harry noticed that Daphne had gotten quiet. Most likely she had something she wanted to ask him. He waited patiently for her to be ready.

When they were at the mouth of the small alley where Harry had his little hideout she stopped. Harry turned to look at her with a question in his eyes.

"James….Harry…." she took his hand and pulled him into the alley a little ways. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure Daph…" He didn't let go of her hand. For some reason he really liked holding her hand. True she was a girl, and true girls had cooties, and were generally icky, but not Daphne. Never Daphne.

She looked unsure for a moment before finally deciding on a course of action. Violet eyes met emerald green eyes and held them. "Why don't you want me to tell my family about you? Are you ashamed? What are you scared of?" The intensity of her look bore into Harry and he found it hard to break her gaze.

After a long moment Harry too made a decision. "I'm not normal Daphne. Not even for a wizard." He sighed a world weary sigh that had no place coming from a seven year old. "Watch"

Harry took Daphne's hand and turned it over. He placed his hand over hers so their palms were together and closed his eyes. Harry took a deep breath and reached deep inside of himself, down to the cold center of his being. Where the snow always flew, frozen crystals of ice, deadly and beautiful. Harry reached his frozen core and pulled. He let his thoughts wonder back to the time he first saw her and the impressions he received of her. Sunshine through an icicle. Then he released a bit of his frozen core into his hand.

Daphne felt her hand grow cold, but not enough for her to be uncomfortable or want to draw her hand away from Harry's touch. She watched as the cold grew, but so did a small light. It wasn't strong, but she could see something glowing between their fingers.

Just when the cold was starting to get to be too much for Daphne, it receded and Harry opened his eyes. He moved his hand off of hers and Daphne gasped as she looked at what she held in her palm. It was a 2 inch icicle that held a soft yellow light inside of it. She turned it over in her hand to make sure it really was what she thought it was. Yes the light was definitely inside the ice. It was cold to the touch, but not so cold to make her want to drop it.

"Harry?" She looked up to see a slightly worried look on Harry's face.

Harry sighed. "I like the cold, and can control it. It's why my uncle abandoned me. He said I was a freak, and didn't want me infecting his family." Tears were starting to form in his eyes. "I'm just worried I will infect your family is all…a..an…and I don't want them to think of me as a freak." The tears were starting to run down his cheek.

"You're not a freak Harry! You're beautiful!" Daphne's eyes were wide, looking at Harry with a deep intensity. "Harry your special! I've never heard of anyone with the power to control ice, but it isn't something to be scared of! It's amazing!"

Harry could tell she was telling the truth. She wasn't scared, and she didn't think he was a freak. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Maybe, just maybe it would be ok to tell her parents.

"How long will it last?" Daphne was again looking at the icicle in her hand.

"Forever I guess. I, I don't really know. I put of piece of my magic inside, so as long as the light shines you will know I am ok." He looked a little embarrassed at the admission. "I can feel it, so maybe I will be able to find you if you have it with you." Again he shrugged. "I've never made one before so I don't really know for sure."

Daphne smiled and put the crystal in her pocket. "I will put a chain on it and wear it always Harry, thank you!" Daphne leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Then blushed and pulled away quickly.

"So can we talk to my parents about you?" She looked hopefully at Harry.

"Okay…" Harry was uncertain, but willing to trust his first, and only friend.

"Can we do it now?" She looked eager and confident that everything would be alright.

"Erm…I promised Madam Hopkirk I would sweep out her back room after lunch. I will come to your father's business when I get done, and we can talk to him. Is that okay?"

"Perfect!" Daphne grabbed Harry in a quick hug. "See you then!" Then she ran off.

Harry watched her for a minute and saw her enter her father's shop, he wanted to make sure she made it safe, then turned to make his way towards Madam Hopkirks'. He was almost there when a large explosion split the air. Harry felt the heat of it pass overhead as he dropped to the ground amidst the glass and debris that had been the front of a store next to the clothing shop.

Harry looked around dazed and confused. He saw almost a dozen people in black cloaks and white masks throwing spells randomly. There was no organization to their attacks, and to Harry it made no sense. Something was off about them though. Each of them felt….hot…

"There you are…" Harry turned at the sound of voice and saw a tall man point a wand at him.

"Time to die, Ice Child."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: To the reviewer who claimed that mastery over ice was unrealistic, so is magic. My imagination is my sandbox, and I will build the castles how I like.

Don

-DCM—

Cygnus Greengrass was an important and busy man. His days were filled with making a living at his import/export business, and once a week he spent the afternoon and evening sitting on the Wizengamot. He tried to help steer the wizarding world in the direction his conscious dictated. He had to walk a fine line. While the Greengrass name was generally thought of as 'dark', the truth of the matter was that they were a neutral family. His family had been labeled dark by the light side during the last blood war because they had refused to join the light side. They had also been labeled light by the dark side for the same reason.

"Daddy!" Cygnus looked up as his oldest daughter came running into his office. She had a large smile on her face. Cygnus had seen her with a boy in the Alley several times. Being the concerned father he had asked around about the boy. James was his name. It was Tom at the Leaky Cauldron that had put his fears to rest.

"He's a good lad, you can trust him with your daughter" came the reply to his query. Cygnus wasn't sure why, but he knew he could trust Tom's judgment of the boy. He also knew that the reason for Daphne's desire to come to work with him twice a week wasn't an increase in interest in learning the family business so much as to have a chance to spend a few minutes with her friend.

"Daddy, James wants to meet you…he has something important to talk to you about. As soon as he is done helping Madam Hopkirk he is going to come by. Is that ok? Please tell me it is, please please please?" Daphne looked at her father with an intensity that surprised him.

The truth of the matter was that he had wanted to meet the lad for a while now, this would be as good an opportunity as any. He was about to answer her daughter that it would be fine for him to come by when a muffled explosion was heard throughout the building. Then the screaming started.

"EVERYONE TO THE BACK ROOM! NOW!" Cygnus yelled at his employees drawing his wand. "Daphne! Follow Margret and get in the back room!" He moved out of his office and went to towards the front of his office and started casting wards. He saw several men in black cloaks with white masks.

"Deatheaters?!" Cygnus was confused. It had been almost six years since he had seen a deatheater, why were they attacking now?

"HARRY!" came Daphne's anguished scream. Cygnus turned around in time to see his daughter rushing towards the door.

-DCM-

"There you are…" Harry turned at the sound of voice and saw a tall man point a wand at him.

"Time to die, Ice Child."

Harry's felt his blood run cold, and he knew he was in trouble. Without warning a stream of fire shot out of the man's wand strait at Harry lighting his pants on fire. Harry screamed and rolled to the side and tried to put the flames out with his hands. It took him several tries and more than a few burns on his hands but with a final act of desperation he got them out.

The man was laughing at him the whole time. "Like the heat Ice Child?"

Heat, Ice…Harry reached for his core and let some of the cold out to his hands and legs where they were burnt and felt the heat start to recede. Afterwards he felt a wave of fatigue flow through his body. 'Too soon' he thought 'too soon after making Daphne the icicle" the world started turning black and he slumped to the ground.

-DCM—

"Daphne NO!" It was too late, she was out the door and running down the street. Cygnus ran after his headstrong daughter like a man possessed. On more than one occasion he had to shoot a spell over her shoulder at a deatheater who had seen her and pointed their wand in her direction.

"Daphne! Wait!" Cygnus yelled and shot another piercing hex at an attacker. He was rewarded with a strangled scream as the man went down with a spell through his neck. "Daphne!" Cygnus was getting desperate.

He rounded the corner to see his daughter run up behind a deatheater who was pointing his wand at a child with black unruly hair, and tackle him around the waist.

"Leave him alone!" was her cry as the man yelped in surprise.

The man swung his arm at his daughter catching her in the head with his elbow. "Insolent Child" the man muttered.

Then he turned back to the boy on the ground who was just starting to stir. Cygnus could see that his hands and legs seemed to be burned. At first glance they didn't seem too bad, but with burns you could never tell.

With a quick flourish of his wand and an angry "bombardia", Cygnus banished the man through the front window of a nearby shop. He quickly ran over to Daphne and picked her up off the ground. "Daphne!" he began looking her over.

"Daddy! Help Harry!" came her plea.

"Harry?"

He looked over at the small boy, who was just starting to pick himself up off the ground and was looking around. The boy didn't even seem to notice them, he was staring at the deatheaters in an odd distracted way.

-DCM—

Harry clawed his way back to consciousness. He had heard Daphne call his name. He needed to get up. He needed to help her. He heard the sounds of a scuffle happening nearby and then the sounds of a spell and someone crashing through a window. He slowly stood up and looked around. His attention was focused on the men in black robes. Why did they feel wrong? Why did they feel hot? Why had the one that set him on fire, call him an ice child?

Harry finally looked around and saw Daphne in the arms of a man that could only be her father. Harry saw the blood on the side of her head and inside he felt his heart break. He knew it was his fault she had gotten hurt. These men were here for him and him alone. He knew that now as surely as he knew that ice was cold.

"They are here for me. I have to go." The words were sad.

"No Harry, please no!"

Harry turned and saw three more men looking at him intently. They all turned towards him and raised their wands. Harry knew it was now or never. He needed somewhere safe. Somewhere far away. Somewhere where he wouldn't put Daphne in danger.

He closed his eyes and reached for the cold in his heart. He reached for the bitter sweet feeling of winter's wind on his skin. And then….he stepped.

-DCM—

There was noise, there was screaming and the sound of spells being fired all around, but Daphne heard what he said in an unexplainable clarity. 'They are here for me.' WHAT? 'I have to go' NO!

"No Harry, please no!" Don't leave me! Please! Daphne saw three more deatheaters turn and lift their wands towards Harry. She felt the temperature suddenly drop. She saw two fireballs and a massive column of flame make their way towards Harry. At the last second Harry stepped forward towards the flames, and disappeared in a burst of ice and snow.

The spell casting around her suddenly stopped, and almost as one, the deatheaters apparated out of the alley. Daphne desperately pulled away from her father and ran to where she had last seen Harry, but it was no use.

Harry Potter was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you for all the positive reviews and comments. Knowing that I am helping others to be entertained has motivated me to post more than the promised once a week. I will keep trying to post each day until it gets closer to finals, then you may not get a post for a couple weeks, but I will let you know in advance. There is no set length on each of my chapters. I have noticed that chapters seem to have a natural stopping point, so when I reach it, then the chapter will be done.

Don

-DCM-

Alistair Moody and Amelia Bones made their way through Diagon Alley. The step clump of his wooden leg matching the soft shuffle of her boots. Everywhere they looked they could see the wreckage of the battle strewn across the road. Up the road in front of Flourish and Botts Book store an auror was trying to cover a body with a blanket. A woman was weeping and clutching the body of what looked like a teenage boy.

"Anyone you know?" Moody queried Amelia.

She grimaced for a minute, glanced at the woman and looked down. "That's Lady Candice Jones, if I had to guess, I would say that is their second oldest, Robert on the ground."

"Hestia's brother?"

Amelia didn't answer, she merely nodded her head.

"Bullocks" Moody curse. Amelia didn't bother to correct his language, she was thinking much worse. Hestia was a good woman, and a better auror. This would hurt her and her family badly. "It's been six years, why now? What's changed?" Moody seemed to be thinking out loud and Amelia again didn't answer for a moment.

"You tell me Mad-eye, you're my dark wizard expert." She looked at the grizzled old auror. Alistair 'Mad-eye' Moody was the most notorious dark wizard catcher known in Britain. He was even known in many other countries for his work. He had spent the greater part of his life fighting the dark and had the scars to show it. He was missing one leg, most of his nose and his right eye. Despite or maybe it was because of his scars he was lightning fast in a fight, and deadly in battle. Just the man you wanted with you, and the last man you wanted against you. It was said he could tell more about a battle in one glance, than most people could tell after an hour of looking at the scene.

Moody stopped and looked around. His magical right eye running in circles, focusing first on one spot and then another. He breathed in a few times, and almost seemed to be testing the air. A small frown appeared on his scarred face as he started making his preliminary conclusions. Moody then closed his eye and stretched out his left hand, pausing for a moment to feel the area around him.

He opened his eye, and frowning even deeper turned in a slow full circle looking at the damage inflicted on the shops. When he was done he turned and looked at Amelia. She raised one immaculate eyebrow in question.

He beckoned her over to where an auror was standing beside three bodies wearing black robes. Only one still had on the white mask that deatheaters wore when causing mayhem.

"You have something?" Amelia looked at him intently.

"You could say that." Moody looked at the dead bodies with both his normal eye and his magical one.

"Well don't keep me in suspense Mad-eye." Amelia was getting impatient.

"This wasn't a deatheater attack." Both of Amelia's eyebrows rose up to her airline. It was only her respect for her one time mentor that made her hold her tongue.

She looked at Moody for one long hard moment. "Explain."

"Three things. First, the damage to the buildings and the injuries. All of it is fire based. Burns on the victims, fires on the buildings and the smell of sulfur in the air. Deatheaters may have lit buildings on fire, but they used the killing curse on people. Second, look at the businesses and the victims. It's too indiscriminant. Two shops owned by half-bloods, four by muggle-born, and three owned by pure-bloods. Even during the height of the blood war, the deatheaters didn't touch the shops owned by purebloods unless they were considered blood-traitors. And Madam Hopkirk certainly wasn't considered one, but her shop was damaged today." Moody stopped and looked at the shops again.

"And the third reason you don't think this was a deatheater raid?"

Moody turned and looked at her and then down at the dead bodies at his feet. He reached down and took hold of the left sleeve on one of the bodies and pulled it up, revealing a long pale arm. One suspiciously free of a certain tattoo. "None of these three carry the dark mark."

Amelia looked on with a tightening expression. "So a group of people pretending to be deatheaters to throw off suspicion, attack Diagon Alley in a random manner. To do what? What was their purpose, what where they after?"

A tall, athletically built auror walked up to Moody and Amelia and got their attention. "Moody! Amelia! I need you over here. There is a young girl, Daphne Greengrass over there." He pointed to where a crying Daphne was being held by her father. "She just told me something very disturbing."

Both Moody and Amelia looked at him. "What did she tell you?"

"She seems to think that the attackers were after her friend. And when her friend got away the attack stopped and the attackers fled."

"That doesn't make sense. Why would they be after her friend? What was her name?"

"His name was Harry Potter."

Amelia and Moody were both quiet for several seconds as the impact of Shack's statement sunk home.

"Bloody Buttered Bullocks!" Amelia cursed.

"Yes indeed." Moody agreed with her. "The question is not what were they after, it's who were they after."

-DCM—

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat at his desk in the headmaster's office of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The paper work before him was deep and promised to be time consuming, but he was diligently working on it. 'After all' he mused to himself 'budgets do not approve themselves'.

His work was interrupted by his fireplace turning green and a familiar scarred head appearing in it.

"Albus!"

"Hello Alistair. What can I do for you today?" Albus knew he had a lot of work to do, but was always willing to let it be put off for an old friend.

"There was an attack in Diagon Alley today. At first it looked like deatheaters, but on closer inspection it was determined to not be deatheaters."

"That is unfortunate, I hope no one was seriously hurt."

"The oldest Jones boy was killed and several shops were badly damaged. On the other side, three of the attackers were killed. Two of them by Lord Greengrass."

Albus sighed, put down his quill and closed his eyes. It was always so hard when people died. Especially the young. "Hestia is going to be heart broken. She was very close to her brother."

Albus looked at Moody and noticed he seemed very agitated. And for someone like him to be agitated, it meant something else was seriously wrong. "What aren't you telling me Alistair?"

"It seems that Harry Potter was in the alley today, and the attackers were after him specifically…" His words hung heavy on the air. Even Dumbledore's phoenix familiar, Fawkes, was paying attention.

Dumbledore closed his eyes and covered them with a shaky hand. "Was he hurt? What was he doing in Diagon Alley? Are you sure they were after him?" Albus stood, his paperwork left forgotten on his desk.

"Reports say he may have been burned, but it's uncertain, and we are pretty certain it was him, we have three witnesses that saw him in the alley and two of them have identified him. It seems he has been in the alley for the last six months. We believe they were after him because as soon as he disappeared, the attack stopped and the remaining attackers left." Moody rattled off a quick report.

"Disappeared?" Albus looked at Moody.

"In an explosion of snow and ice."

"Snow and ice?!" Albus was having trouble putting the facts together.

"Snow and ice." Moody confirmed.

"Bullocks…"


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you for all the positive reviews and comments. Knowing that I am helping others to be entertained has motivated me to post more than the promised once a week. I will keep trying to post each day until it gets closer to finals, then you may not get a post for a couple weeks, but I will let you know in advance. There is no set length on each of my chapters. I have noticed that chapters seem to have a natural stopping point, so when I reach it, then the chapter will be done.

Don

-DCM-

Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey was a perfectly normal house on a perfectly normal street in a perfectly normal town. And that is how the residents of number four liked it. It had been well over six months since anything 'abnormal' or even 'freakish' had happened. In fact it was the lack of freakishness that the normal residents of number four liked the most.

It was on a perfectly normal evening when perfectly normal people ate their perfectly normal dinners with their perfectly normal families that something 'abnormal' happened.

There was the sound of a pop heard on the street in front of number four Privet Drive, followed closely by a second pop, and then a third. Standing on the street looking at number four were three people. The oldest was tall and had a long flowing white beard that reached well past his waist. He was currently dressed in deep purple robes with pink moons and stars decorating it. If one were to watch long enough they would notice that the moons and stars rotated slowly in random patterns. The second person was a shorter woman dressed in deep red robes who held an air of authority and wore a monocle on one of her eyes. Severe was a good word to describe her. It was rare, but when she did smile she was actually pretty. She was not smiling at the moment. The third member of the trio was a battered and scared man with one leg. In place of his missing leg he had a peg leg that ended in a clawed wooden foot that thumped softly as he walked. One look at this man and you could tell he was a warrior. The one eye he had left was flint hard, his face was scarred and he was missing half his nose. Not only was he a warrior, he was a survivor, and his scars were his witnesses and badges of honor testifying of the severity of the fight.

The three made their way up the driveway and then the front walk and stopped on the front porch. Albus paused to take a deep breath.

"Good auror, bad auror?" Moody's eye riveted on the front door while his magical swirled around looking for any signs of danger.

"I do not believe now is the time for games Alistair" came the response from the aged headmaster.

"Good! Bad auror it is!" Before Albus or Amelia could stop him, Moody stepped forward and with a quick flick of his wand blasted the door in. Pieces of wood were still flying down the hall and into the living room where the Dursleys were currently watching the telly, when Moody stepped into the hall and started up the hall towards the shocked and scared family.

Albus' eyebrows raised up to his hairline and he looked at Amelia who just gave a slight shrug of her shoulders and followed the scary warrior into the house. Albus sighed and stepped forward himself. He followed the bellows and screams to the living room where he found Amelia trying to keep Moody from causing too much more damage. In the space of five seconds he had stuck a rather corpulent man to the ceiling and from the purple look on his face and the fact that his mouth was moving with no sound coming out, silenced him. The woman was currently trying to hide what looked like a young baby whale behind her too skinny body. She too must have been silenced as her screeching voice cut off in mid rant.

Amelia laid a hand on Moody's arm to stop him. "That's enough Mad-eye."

Moody looked at the horse-faced woman and growled, but he didn't do anything else to her.

"Perhaps a spot of tea is called for." Albus tried to diffuse the situation before things got any more out of control. "Sit Petunia." He gave the woman a look that brooked no argument. Three more chairs appeared and the new comers sat in them. The baby whale still hid behind his mother and whimpered.

With a casual wave of his wand, Albus righted the coffee table and a set of china appeared and he purposefully started pouring tea for himself, Amelia, Moody and Petunia. With a small hesitation he poured a fifth cup for Vernon Dursley, who was still stuck to the ceiling.

After a brief moment and a sip or two of tea Albus looked up at Petunia and spoke. "Alistair is going to remove the silencing spell now Petunia and you are going to tell me where your nephew is." Moody grumbled but pointed his wand that the pale faced woman and muttered under his breath. Petunia found she could talk again.

"Now then, where is Harry?" Petunia found herself facing down three very angry wizards.

"I…I…don't know…." came her stuttering answer.

"You don't know?"

"No, I…see…he…he…he likes to stay out late at the playground and won't be back until later." She rushed through her answer. "Now, that that is all cleared up, please leave." She looked uncomfortable, but was gaining confidence when no one spoke. "Yes, leave or I shall call the authorities." She started to stand to see them to the door.

"Sit" That one word caused her to stop her movement and look around fearfully.

"Let me introduce myself Mrs. Dursley" the woman in the group spoke. "My name is Amelia Bones, I am head of the DMLE, which is the Department for Magical Law Enforcement."

Petunia looked confused for a moment. "Think Scotland Yard, except magical" came the explanation before Petunia could ask her question.

"And why does this matter to me? To us?" Petunia was getting her attitude back.

"Because this afternoon there was an attack on Diagon Alley, in London and witnesses place a small boy matching Harry's description in the alley at the time of the attack."

"I knew he was a hoodlum and a menace, he probably started it! You should take him and lock him up with the rest of you freaks and leave us normal people alone!" came Petunia's rushed rant.

It was at that moment that Albus started to fully realize just how large of a mistake he had made when he had placed Harry to live with his mother's sister. Everything he had hoped for, a loving family, female nurturing, a positive male role model for Harry, was nothing but dust and ashes. He felt another great weight settle onto his already stooped shoulders. He already had so much to atone for, but somehow this mistake felt heavier than the others. He had done this. He had condemned Harry to these people.

Moody's reaction was far different than Albus. Albus was feeling guilt and remorse, Moody was feeling anger. Anger hot and heavy. Very similar to the anger he felt when he faced a dark wizard. 'Is there such thing as a dark muggle? And how much prison time will I get if I kill them? What if I just…maim…them?' dark thoughts swirled through his mind.

Amelia's reaction was a mix of shock and anger. She was too professional to allow herself to contemplate homicide. Instead she ruthlessly stamped the thought down and looked long and hard at the woman.

"How long Mad-eye?"

"Three minutes."

Amelia looked at Petunia Dursley again. "Mrs. Dursley, you have exactly 2 minutes to tell me why Harry Potter has been in London alone for over six months."

Petunia knew she was caught. There was no way out. Perhaps she could shift the blame to her husband and maybe, just maybe she and little Dudders could come out of this without too much trouble. "It…i…it was Vernon's idea. He said that we didn't want to be infected with Harry's freakishness and that we needed to get rid of him."

"And when was this?"

"After he turned his teachers hair blue, and covered it in ice….last October."

Albus took his half-moon spectacles off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He then sighed "Nine months…from what we can tell, he's been on his own in Diagon Alley for almost six months, and now you tell me you dumped him in London alone almost three months before that?" There was a very disappointed tone to his voice.

"It's not like we wanted the little turd here anyway! Always whining about being hungry or hot." Petunia looked incensed and angry.

Distantly she could hear the sounds of sirens and for a brief moment thought her troubles were over.

Amelia cocked her eyebrow at Moody. "Two and a half minutes."

"Here is what is going to happen Petunia. The muggle police are coming. We notified them of your possible connection to a severe case of child neglect and abandonment. When they get here we will turn over the investigation to them and let them handle it. But rest assured, even if you get off in their system, you won't in ours. If I don't think your punishment fits your crimes, I will come and arrest you and you will be tried in the magical courts."

It was then that several Bobbies entered through the broken door.

"Mad-eye's work Amelia?" One of the officers dressed in a suit asked.

"You know Moody, Samuel" was Amelia's reply.

"Yea, overeager."

"Insolent whelp, should never have let you pass training." There was a smile on Moody's face despite the growl in his voice.

"We'll take it from here Ami, I'll post you the results as soon as we get them."

"Thanks Sam. Dinner Sunday? Susan was asking about you the other day. I think she misses her Uncle Sammy."

The officer smiled, "Sure, pick me up at 2:00?"

"Will do" Amelia, Albus and Moody started moving down the hall.

They were stopped by a question from Samuel. "What about the one stuck to the ceiling?"

Amelia looked at Moody who just grunted. With a loud scream and a crash, Vernon fell from the ceiling and smashed into the coffee table flattening it and the tea service that was still on it.

"That works." Samuel turned to the scene in the living room. "Cuff him."

The two wizards and the witch made their way out to the front lawn and stopped.

"Well that was singularly unhelpful." Amelia looked around.

"It told us how young Harry came to be in the alley." Albus offered.

"True, but it still doesn't tell us anything about where he is."

-DCM-

Harry felt himself hurtling forward in space. For a moment he was worried he might be sick from the lights and sensations flashing by. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the feeling of the cold he felt, and his stomach settled. He wondered where he was being taken, or rather where he was going. He remembered wishing for somewhere safe, but had no specific destination in mind when he left.

It was with a suddenness that surprised Harry that his journey came to an end. One moment he felt himself moving forward, and the next his feet connected with the ground and he felt himself falling. Falling and being welcomed into the loving embrace of a very cold and very deep snowbank.

'Well, I guess that's a small improvement.'

Harry stood and brushed himself off. He took a moment to look at his hands. They were red and blistered, and he could tell he needed to put something cold on them to help draw the heat out. He reached down to the snow and picked some up. He inspected his legs and saw that they were burned along the front from his trainers up to about his knees. It didn't look too bad, but it sure did sting. He spread some snow on his legs and then stuffed some up what was left of his pant legs and hoped it would stay in place. He wasn't having much luck so he sat down and covered his legs in snow and then leaned down and put his hand in the snow as well.

It was only then that he got a chance to look around. He was in the mountains. Everywhere he looked around him there were more mountains. All of them covered in snow. It was only after a moment that he noticed what looked like an old building sitting in the middle of a small valley below him. It wasn't very far off and he thought he could make it there easily. Perhaps once there, he could get some help and find out where he was.

Harry slowly stood and started making his way down the mountain as best as he could. It took him almost an hour and a half to make it to the doors of the building. But then again, he had had to stop twice and put more snow on his burns to help them to stop hurting. When he reached the door he took ahold of the large metal knocker and swung it hard as he could. He could only do it twice because touching the knocker hurt his burned hands.

After a brief moment the door opened and a short, bald oriental man dressed in what looked like and orange toga came out. He looked at Harry for several long minutes with a look of confusion.

"I…I…I need help" Harry looked at the man who simply looked back.

Finally a look of understanding came over the man's face and he spoke again. "Come and rest for the night Winter's Child, then in the morning you can continue your journey."

'Continue? Journey?' Harry knew this wasn't going to be good. "Ah bollocks…"


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you all again for all the reviews. They really are an inspiration to me to keep writing and updating. I would also like to thank the reviewer who pointed out my spelling error. I actually had no idea I was misspelling bollocks. Of course being American, I am at a handicap when it comes to British cursing.

Don

-DCM-

Astoria Greengrass sat in the hall of the family wing of the Greengrass manor. Astoria was normally a precocious and bubbly child. She seemed to always be running from one adventure to another, and at 5 years old, the world was full of adventures. But not today, today her father and her sister had come home early. But instead of coming home to enjoy some time together as a family, her father and sister had come home dirty, disheveled, and in Daphne's case, with blood on her head and clothes. She was also hysterical. She kept going on and on about someone named Harry. Astoria didn't understand it. Normally her sister was quite even keeled. She didn't laugh or smile as much as Astoria thought she should, but this was the first time that Astoria could ever remember her being in this state.

Her father had whisked her off to her room calling for their mother and for the house elves. Astoria had followed and then waited outside her sister's room for her parents. It was hard, in fact sitting still for longer than five minutes was very hard for such an energetic young girl, but Astoria had managed it.

She heard the door to Daphne's room open and saw her parents come out. She caught a brief glimpse of Daphne asleep on her bed. She went to stand up and ask what was going on, but stopped when her parents started talking.

"Are you sure?" Her mother was looking surprised and confused.

"Daphne swears it's true, and I did see the boy. He had the Potter hair, and was about the right age. I knew James Potter well, and this boy looked just like a mini James." Her father was looking worn and tired from his day.

"It's no wonder deatheaters were trying to kill him then."

Astoria's father stopped her mother. "It wasn't deatheaters Melinda, it was…someone else…they don't know who."

Astoria's mother was thoughtful at the revelation. "So not only are the deatheaters trying to kill him, if they can, now there is another group that wants him dead as well." She looked to her husband for confirmation.

He nodded and then grimaced. "And Daphne was right in the middle of it."

"Where is the boy now?"

Her father looked lost for a moment. Lost and confused. "That's the thing…no one knows where he is."

"So they have lost Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived and savior of the wizarding world?"

Astoria gasped. She may have only been five years old, but even she knew who Harry Potter was. Her parents turned and looked at her. She tried to hide but it was too late. She had been spotted.

"Come here little one." Her father called and held out her arms.

Astoria had tears in her eyes as she ran into her father's arms. "Is he really lost daddy? Is Harry really lost?"

"I don't know muffin, I really don't. For Daphne's sake I hope he isn't."

-DCM—

Harry sat on the cold stone floor of the building he had found in the mountains. The people who lived in the building polite and gentle, but had not offered him much beyond shelter and a place to rest. He had been given a small bowl of salve for his burns and a helping of a thick, hearty stew with some bread, and a cup of water to drink.

Harry had eaten the dinner without comment or complaint. And when someone had returned to take his dished he had thanked them for the food. The man had merely smiled and bowed his head in return. Harry had then taken the time to spread the salve on his legs and his hands. It took a minute, but the burning had stopped and he was able to rest comfortably.

He sat wondering what tomorrow would bring. He was still confused at the greeting he had received. 'Winter's Child? Journey?' It was with these thoughts that Harry turned over on the thin straw mattress, pulled up the rough blanket and fell asleep.

-DCM—

Firebrine was motionless on his throne. Long pale fingers grasping the gilded arms. He was staring at his priests that were kneeling before him. He didn't like being in his human form, but sometimes it was important to remind his minions just how powerful he was.

"Tell me again…" His voice carried annoyance and menace.

"We disguised ourselves as a local group of discontents so we wouldn't be recognized my Lord." Here the priest paused.

"Go on."

"Then we attacked the area where the child was staying. We found him, and while attacking him, he dis…disappeared in an explosion of ice and snow." The priest was scared. He knew his life was most certainly forfeit for this failure. At this point his only hope was that it was quick.

"And how many men were killed?'

"Three my Lord."

"And how many did you kill."

The priest tried to swallow, but found his mouth was very dry so swallowing wasn't possible. "We…we..w…we think we killed one….m..my…my Lord…" The priest trailed off and tried to press himself further into the floor.

"One…"

"Ye…yes…yes…my Lord…one"

The priest whimpered as he felt his Lord rise from his throne.

-DCM-

"When did the child arrive?" The deep rich voice reverberated through the small stone room.

"This evening Sire."

"Was he given any succor?" There was no menace or anger in the question, simply a request for knowledge.

"When he arrived, his hands and parts of his legs were burned. He was given a minor healing salve, a meal and a place to rest for the night, Sire.

The room was silent for a moment and the monk knew his liege was pondering this new information.

"You have done well Ishito. I am pleased."

"Thank you, Sire." The monk let a small smile grace his weathered face. Praise from his master always made him feel good about the work he was doing. "And in the morning, Sire?"

Again the room was silent for a few minutes. "Let him choose from a staff, a knife or a rope, and send him on his journey. After he has gone, let me know what his choice was."

"As you wish, Sire." Ishito felt his master's presence recede from the room. He pondered for a few minutes longer on the items to be offered and their possible meanings. He also wondered which the young traveler would choose. It was with these thoughts that the monk let himself slip into meditation.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you all again for all the reviews. They really are an inspiration to me to keep writing and updating. I would again like to thank the kind reviewers who point out my mistakes so that I can either correct them, or make sure I don't repeat them in the future. Yes, Moody's name is spelled Alastor and not Alistair, I appreciate the heads up.

AN: There is a time skip coming up, but I need to get it set up first. Harry has a ways to go before he can rest, so to speak. During the time skip, there will be a couple of sub-plots that play out. Nothing major, or story changing, just an insight or two into a few of the other players in the game.

Don

-DCM—

Daphne slowly came awake to the feel of someone lightly brushing her hair back from her face, and tucking it behind her ear. She mumbled something incoherent and burrowed deeper into her pillow, trying to recapture the bliss of sleep. It was with a sudden realization that her eyes shot open and she sat up quickly.

"Harry!" She started looking around frantically. She saw her mother sitting on her bed next to her. "Mum! Where is Harry?"

"Shhh, hush now…settle down sweetie…" Her mother calmed her and started checking her over. Her wand made intricate patterns over Daphne as she whispered under her breath. She put her wand away and sat back down on the bed next to her daughter. "No worse for the wear, but you did give your Father and I quite a fright."

"What about Harry? Is he okay?" Daphne was looking at her mother with very intent eyes. Melinda was surprised by how attached she seemed to be to Harry, and how concerned she was for him. Daphne had always been a reserved child, keeping her emotions close and in control. It was only in the last six months the she had started showing signs of letting go of this control and showing her emotions. Melinda wondered just how much of this was due to friendship with Harry.

Melinda sighed and looked down for a brief moment. "He's still missing sweetie. They haven't found him yet, but they are looking for him. Even Headmaster Dumbledore is looking for him."

Daphne put her hands over her face and started to cry. Her mother gathered her up in her arms and let her weep. It was the first time in many years she had cried, and her mother decided it was best to let her cry as much as she needed to. After several minutes crying seemed to slow and then finally stop with the occasional sniffle.

"Do you want to tell me about what happened, and how you came to be friends with Harry Potter?" It was a gentle and loving request, but Daphne knew that it brooked no protest. So for the next two hours she talked to her mother. She talked to her about meeting Harry in the alley, their strange and unlikely bond. Their exploration and adventures, their talks over lunch, of him showing her where he was staying, and finally of his reluctance to talk to most adults. Finally she told her mother of the crystal Harry had made her, his decision to talk to Daphne's parents, and then what happened in the attack.

"He said he had to leave so I would be safe." Daphne had tears slowly running down her cheeks. "He left to protect me…"

Melinda Greengrass was having trouble digesting all the information her daughter was telling her. Harry Potter, savior of the wizarding world, abandoned in London, and living in Diagon Alley for months. There he met and befriended her daughter, and lived as best as he could. To top it off, it seems that if what her daughter told her, he had a gift that had never been seen before. The revelation that he ran away again so Daphne wouldn't be hurt was beyond comprehension.

Daphne held the cold clear crystal in her hands. It's golden inner light giving off a small and steady amount of light. She had held it in her hands the whole time.

"May I see the crystal sweetie?" Daphne handed it to her. It was cool to the touch, but not uncomfortably cold. It was very nearly weightless and had no sharp edges. The light inside was faint, but steady. In a word it was beautiful. Melinda made a decision. "Why don't I go and get a chain and we will attach it to the crystal and you can wear it around your neck so you will have it with you always.

"I would like that mum, thanks…" Daphne took the crystal back and lay back down.

"Okay, I will be back in a minute." She stood and moved towards the door. "Silver or gold?"

Daphne thought for just a brief moment. "Silver. Definitely silver."

-DCM—

Harry came awake in a state of confusion. He was still very tired and sore from the day before. It took him several minutes to remember where he was. He slowly pulled back the blanket and stood up stretching his body and scratching at a random itch on his arm. He wondered again where he was, and more importantly, where the loo was. He started across the room to where he noticed several of the other men headed and hoped he would be able to find one soon.

One of the men showed up at his side and took his arm gently and led him to a room where Harry could wash himself and take care of his morning absolutions. When done he was led to a room with some tables and given a bowl of porridge with some nuts and a couple bits of fruit in it. He was also given a cup of juice from a fruit he didn't recognize. Harry ate in silence, focusing on his food, and on the still unanswered questions from the night before. He was most concerned about the old man's comment about continuing on his journey. 'I just wanted to get away so Daphne would be safe. Now how do I get back? What is a winter's child? Where am I? Silver or gold? What do I do now? Wait a minute…silver or gold?'

It was then that his pondering was interrupted. He was led through the building to a small room where the first man he saw the day before, was waiting next to a table. On the table was a long brown stick about a foot longer than Harry was tall, and thick enough that he knew he wouldn't be able to get his hand around it. Next to the stick was a plain but sturdy looking knife in a worn leather sheath. The last item on the table was a coil of rope.

The man was waiting for Harry and motioned him over. "Come Winter's Child, you may choose one item from the table, and then you must continue on your journey." He looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry couldn't contain his questions any longer. "What is a winter's child? What journey? Am I going home? Where am I?" The questions came out in a rush.

The man looked at Harry for a brief moment before answering. "The answers you seek lie at the end of your journey."

"How long is my journey?"

"As long as it takes."

"What is that supposed to mean? I just want to get back and make sure Daphne is okay."

"All things will work themselves out in time child."

Harry didn't know if he believed the strange man. He wasn't sure the man knew what he was talking about, he sure didn't know how to answer a question. "It is time to choose." The man again gestured towards the table that held the items on it.

Harry looked at the stick, the rope and the knife. The rope he dismissed right away. He didn't know anything about tying knots, so it would be next to useless to him. He thought about the stick next. Sure it would be nice as a walking stick, but wasn't sure what else it could be used for. He knew he didn't know how to use it in a fight. Harry finally chose the knife. At least with the knife, if he found a tree, maybe he could cut himself another walking stick, then he would have two items instead of one.

He reached out and took the knife and put it in one of his pockets. The man nodded once, and turned to the door. He took hold of the handle and pulled the door open and walked out, expecting Harry to follow. When they were outside he turned to Harry and looked at him intently.

"What you are seeking is at the end of this road." Here he gestured at a small trail that lead deeper into the mountains. "Be careful, the road can be dangerous, and leaving it will certainly lead to sorrow." He paused again. "Good luck Winter's Child." With that he turned and entered back into the building and softly closed the door.

Harry stared after the man, and then at the door, after it had closed, for several moments. He then turned and looked at the road ahead of him. With a long suffering sigh, he started walking.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you again to everyone who has posted a review or taken the time to send me a message. You guys are great and I appreciate each of you very much. On a side note about Harry's choice of the knife over the staff or the rope, I must admit that the choice he made was dependent on two things: First and foremost, I was a boy scout growing up (a youth training group to those who don't know what they are – google it if you need to know, and yes I earned my eagle scout) and I was taught to never go camping or hiking without a knife. Secondly, the knife will play a very important part of an upcoming situation. A staff or a rope could have both been used, but the knife definitely has a more dramatic effect.

AN: This next chapter was originally part of a much, much larger chapter, but in order to provide my update junkies with their fix for the day, I have taken it off and am posting it as its' own chapter. It will deal almost exclusively with setting up the story for Harry's journey into the mountains. The chapter dealing with that journey is quite large and to me was, at parts, a bit emotional. Nothing like sitting in a computer lab wiping tears out of my eyes. Because I want the delivery to be amazing, I will be working on it over the weekend, so after today there won't be a post until Monday the 10th.

Enough of my rambling, let us set the stage.

Don

-DCM—

Daphne sat on her bed and watched as her mother cast several spells over the chain and crystal. She was anxious and wanted the crystal back. She wasn't sure why, but when it was out of her possession she felt a loss, like something small, but important, was missing.

Her mother was carefully attaching a beautiful delicate silver chain to the crystal. She had wrapped the chain around the larger end of the crystal a couple times and cast several permanent sticking charms to hold the crystal and the chain together. She then started casting impervious charms on the chain itself so that it wouldn't break. She then keyed the necklace to Daphne, so that she would always be able to 'feel' where the chain was if she took it off. She wouldn't know exactly where it was, but she would be able to point in the direction of where it was. She thought briefly of casting a few protection charms on the necklace, but decided such delicate work should be done by professionals. 'Yes' she thought 'a trip to Diagon Alley in a few days may be in order, especially if Daphne is as tied to Harry Potter as she seems to be.'

"There you go love." Melinda handed the necklace back to Daphne and watched as her daughter smiled and put it around her neck. Daphne seemed to be pleased with her mother's work, and then in a surprising move, stood up and hugged her mother tightly.

"Thank you mother!" Daphne's words came out in a hushed and reverent whisper. "I love you!"

"I love you too sweet heart." Melinda gave her a firm and loving hug back. Daphne wasn't the hugging type, and this was a rare treat for her. "I think you should rest today, and join us for dinner tonight. Are you okay to stay in bed today?"

"Yes, mum."

"Do you want some books to read so you don't get too bored?"

"That would be great."

"Okay, I will send some up with Tipsy when she brings you your lunch. You can call for her if you need anything before then."

"Okay mum" Daphne crawled back into bed and started pulling the covers back up.

Melinda hesitated for a few minutes then spoke again. "I'm sure Harry is ok, and will be found soon."

Daphne held the crystal in her hand and looked off into space for a brief moment. "He's fine now. He's walking."

Melinda went still. "Walking?"

"In the mountains." Daphne kept staring at nothing.

"In the mountains?" Melinda's eye brows were rising towards her hairline.

"In the snow." Daphne's attention came back to her room and she laid her head on her pillow and closed her eyes. Her mother was in a shocked and confused state as she turned to walk from the room. She was almost to the door when she heard Daphne say "He likes the snow…"

Melinda left the room and softly closed the door wondering if she would ever know what was going on.

-DCM—

Ishito sat in lotus position in the small bare room he used when he needed to communicate with his master. He was again pondering the boy who had left a few hours before. He was so young and small. Though Ishito knew the reasons behind giving the child so little help, and not answering any of the questions the boy posed to him, he still felt guilt and sorrow for being so singularly unhelpful.

"He must be strong, if he is to live and grow." The old man felt his master's presence fill the room and heard his voice reverberate in his mind. "Your conscience and compassion do you credit. Two of your more admirable traits."

"Thank you my Lord. I live to serve."

"And your high morals make you an even more valuable servant." Ishito was pleased with the praise he was receiving. "Tell me of the boy, and the choice he made."

"The boy arose without complaint and was feed a meal. Afterwards he was brought to me at the rear gate. He was very inquisitive and had several questions. I gave him what answers I could and then I let him choose between a staff, a knife and rope. After a moment he chose the knife, and I led him out the door and set him on the path with a warning that leaving the path would lead to sorrow."

The room was silent for several moments while his Lord pondered the information he had been given. "The knife…interesting…I would have chosen the staff."

"And I the rope, my Lord"

"Most interesting." Ishito expected his Lord to withdraw his presence, and was surprised when he did not. "I require you to attend me. Leave Kenji in charge of the monastery and make your way here. Be prepared for a long stay."

"When would you have me arrive my Lord?"

"Before the child arrives."

"Yes my Lord." Ishito rose at once and left to make preparations for his journey.

-DCM—

Lucius Malfoy was not a man to trifle with. He was powerful both politically and financially, and if the truth were to be told, he was a well above average in power for a wizard. There was a reason he was made leader on many raid the Dark Lord had ordered. He had a quick mind and a very good grasp of strategy, especially when that strategy involved surprise and fear.

Lucius was currently sitting in a dark corner of a dingy and dark pub deep in Knockturn Alley with the hood of his cloak up. There was an untouched glass of firewhiskey on the table in front of him along with a couple silver sickles. To the casual observer, it would appear that Lucius was at ease, simply waiting for someone to share a drink with. The truth was just the opposite. Inside Lucius was tense and angry. Someone was going to pay for what happened yesterday. Lucius just wasn't sure who yet.

Another man in a dark cloak with the hood up slid into the seat across from Lucius. Without a word, they both took out their wands and started casting several privacy and anti-eavesdropping charms and wards. It was only when they were finished that Lucius spoke.

"You're late"

"You know it's a dangerous day Lucius, the aurors are out in numbers and I was forced to be more circumspect in getting here." The man replied.

"Any idea who it was yesterday?"

"Wasn't any of ours. I talked to Crabbe, Goyle and Mulciber. No one had any idea who it was. That tells me it wasn't anyone from the old crowd. So it was either unmarked followers, or someone setting us up."

"Rumor has it as some group pretending to be loyal followers to cover their own tracks."

"Does anyone know what they were after?" The second man looked curious.

Lucius picked up his glass of whiskey and looked in its depths. "Not what, who." He paused and looked across the table at the man seated in front of him. "Rumor is they were after Harry Potter." He downed the liquid in one smooth motion and set his glass back down on the table.

His companion was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Harry Potter in Diagon Alley?"

Lucius nodded his confirmation. "That's the rumor."

"Interesting."

"Indeed."

"What do you make of this rumor?"

Lucius thought for a few moments. Then spoke with a slow, wicked smile. "Chaos. And with this chaos comes an opportunity. An opportunity that you can help me with Nott."

Theodore Nott Sr. looked intently at Lucius Malfoy. "I'm listening…"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: Thank you all again for all the reviews. They really are an inspiration to me to keep writing and updating. I would like to make a reply to the reviewer who made the comment about the cold being Harry Potter's emo friend: You made me laugh – out loud - in the computer lab – in the library…I got told to keep the noise down…Please keep the reviews coming! Even if they get me in trouble.

AN: Here is the rest of the chapter dealing with Harry's journey. We will meet several important and key players in this chapter that we haven't met yet. I have spent quite a bit of time on it, and it is quite a bit longer than my normal chapters as I didn't want to leave the ending in a cliff hanger. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I have writing it.

Don

-DCM-

Harry had been walking for several hours. He honestly didn't know exactly how long he had been walking, nor did he have any idea how far he had walked. All he knew was that he had walked further than he had ever walked before. He had spent his time walking along the mountain road, if it could be called a road, a barely useable trail would be a more accurate description, both looking for a tree he could cut a branch from to use as a walking stick, and thinking about the answers he didn't get from the old man back at the stone building.

All he had seen so far was snow, a few rocks, some snow, a small patch of dirt with a few brown weeds sticking up, and more snow. Well, he had seen some mountains…but they were covered in snow, so those didn't count as something new.

"He couldn't even tell me where I was…" Harry's mutter came out more than a little angry and slightly bitter. "Hey, I have an idea! Let's take a city kid, give him a knife and send him into the mountains and see what happens! Yea! That sounds great!"

Harry's angry rambling was brought up short when he noticed something. Something that wasn't a rock, or a weed, or even snow, it was something different. Down below the trail was a small copse of trees. Green, healthy trees, with a small brook running through it. The brook seemed to bubble up out of the ground a few yards up hill from the trees, and cascade down the side of the mountain and run between the trees only to disappear back into the ground shortly after passing them. In the middle of the trees, the brook widened slightly into a slow moving pond of sorts. If that wasn't different enough, Harry noticed that sitting on some rocks dangling their feet into the stream were three tall women. Each of them were tall and very slender, and they had green hair that looked like it had leaves mixed in with it.

Harry stopped and stared at the women for several minutes. It looked like they were playing in the water, and eating some kind of fruit that Harry didn't recognize. The longer Harry stared, the hungrier he got, and the more he thought about it, the thirstier he got as well.

The women had noticed him and were staring back. One of them got up from her rock, and picked up some fruit. She slowly walked up the side of the mountain towards Harry. He noticed that she didn't seem to be putting much effort in walking, that or walking up a steep hill wasn't very hard for her. As she got closer, he noticed that she looked slightly translucent. It was almost as if he could look through her, but not quite. The effect was quite disconcerting, especially for a seven year old boy.

"Are you hungry traveler?" The woman had stopped about 15 feet from Harry and was looking at him intently. Harry couldn't answer, he was extremely fixated on the fruit the woman held in her hands. He simply nodded and hopped she would give the fruit to him.

"Then come! You can eat your fill and drink from our stream." She gave Harry a warm and inviting smile.

Harry walked toward the woman. When he reached the edge of the trail he stopped. Something in the back of his head was stopping him. What was it the old man had said?

"Come little one! Our fruit is very sweet and delicious! Come and eat. Are you thirsty? Come and drink your fill." She beckoned Harry to follow. He again went to step off the trail to follow, but instead of walking forward he put his foot down with a small frown.

"Come join us and rest little one!" By now all three women were standing before him. They had moved within a few yards of him. "Come eat and drink and take some rest with us! Let us wash away your cares and troubles!"

Harry again picked up his foot and went to move forward.

-DCM-

Daphne was sitting in her bed. She had slept for a few hours, but wasn't tired enough to keep sleeping. She was currently reading a book about Babbity Rabbit that she enjoyed. She was almost to her favorite part where Babbity tricks the hag into giving her some carrots when she felt her crystal turn cold. She grabbed it and closed her eyes.

She got a glimpse of Harry standing before three tall beautiful women. One was holding some fruit out to him and they were beckoning him to follow. The blood in Daphne's veins ran cold as she quickly realized that they were dryads, and Harry would be in trouble if he followed them. She saw him pick up his foot and then after a moment set it back down. The dryads were again beckoning him to follow and he again picked up his foot and moved to follow.

"Harry stay on the trail!"

-DCM-

"Harry stay on the trail!" The familiar voice caused Harry to stop. He blinked several times and looked around. The women in front of him, dryads he now knew, had stopped trying to get him to follow and were frowning. Harry stepped back from the edge of the trail, looking a little fearful.

The three women stared at him for another moment, but then seeing that their spell had been broken, turned and started to return to their trees.

With one last look at them, Harry turned and continued on his way.

"Thank you Daphne…"

-DCM-

"You're welcome Harry…" Daphne returned to her reading with a small smile on her lips.

-DCM-

Harry's journey carried him deeper into the mountains. The trail led upward from where he had encountered the dryads. Several times he had to stop for a few minutes to rest on a rock. Each time he stopped he made sure to keep himself firmly on the trail. He was starting to understand the warning the man had given him. Sorrow indeed.

As he continued on, the sun rose up to its zenith overhead and began its long journey to the west. From the little Harry understood on directions from school, he guessed he was heading north. Or maybe it was south…well at least he knew he wasn't heading east or west. That knowledge gave him a small portion of comfort..…very small.

After a while, Harry noticed something on the trail ahead. It was small, kind of round, and covered with white fur. Harry stopped and stared at it for a moment. If he had to guess, he would say it looked like a little white monkey…or maybe an ape. He wasn't sure which.

"At least it's not one of those giant white bears…cause that would just be scary beyond description…"

At the sound of Harry's voice, the 'thing' turned and looked at Him. Harry could tell this wasn't just an animal. Whatever this animal was, it was smart. It looked at Harry for a minute, then with a few loud grunts, jumped off the rock and ran up the trail away from Harry and around a bend in the trail and out of sight.

Harry hesitated, and then followed. When he came around the corner he was pulled up short. There were several more of the creatures ahead of him. One or two were on the trail, and several more were around the mouths of several caves that dotted the side of the mountain. The first creature Harry had seen was still running up the trail towards its kin making loud screeching noises. All of the furry creatures stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Harry. One of them picked up what could only be described as a baby, and took it into one of the caves. The creatures had stopped all movement and were looking at Harry while he stood there looking at them.

Harry took a deep breath. He looked around hoping to see a way to bypass what was obviously some sort of village. To the one side of the trail, the embankment dropped off steeply and Harry knew he wouldn't be able to climb back up if he went down. On the upward slope, it looked like it was climbable to a point then it ran into a cliff face. 'No good there either…'

"Stay on the trail, stay on the trail, stay on the trail" The words had become a mantra to him. He moved forward slowly. He held his hands up in front of himself with his hands open and palms outward at chest height. He hopped this would show that he had nothing to hide and meant no harm to the furry white creatures.

"I just want to pass. Stay on the trail, please let me pass, stay on the trail." Harry fervently whispered.

It was almost half way through the small village when one of the taller creatures suddenly came very close to Harry. It stopped near the trail, and peered closely at him. The creature was a good foot taller than Harry and was very thick through the chest. Harry wasn't sure, but got the impression that this was a male creature of the species and that he wasn't really very old. The creature sniffed the air as if to get a clear scent from Harry and looked at him curiously.

After hesitating for a moment, Harry decided the creature wasn't going to hurt him, and he quickly moved past him and continued on his way. Harry was just beginning to think he was going to make it through the village without further incident when suddenly a very large shadow fell over him.

Harry pulled up short, and looked up at the creature before him. His eyes traveled up, and up and up. Standing before him, blocking the trail, was a creature easily seven feet tall. It was heavily muscled, and had several battle scars across its chest, arms and even one running down its face. It had 3 inch tusks jutting up out of its lower jaw, and it was growling menacingly at Harry.

Harry stood there, still as could be, and stared at this creature. He felt his face flush, and if he had a coherent thought, it was that he was probably about to be made into a meal.

The creature growled at Harry again and leaned over him putting his face right up to Harry.

Harry stood stock still and stared right back at the creature.

Without warning it took a deep breath and roared right in Harry's face, the force of its breath causing Harry's hair to fly backwards on his head and several drops of saliva flew from the creatures mouth, landing on Harry's face and chest.

As suddenly as it started, the roar stopped. Harry wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he was tired. Or perhaps it was because he was more than a bit frustrated at this long journey and his lack of answers. Or perhaps it was all the adrenalin he had rushing into his blood. Harry took a deep breath, and as suddenly as the creature roared at him, he opened his mouth and roared right back. He put all his anger, tiredness and frustration into the roar and let it out.

When his roar was done, Harry stood panting and looking at the giant ape thing, who stood there looking at Harry with a look of surprise. For several minutes they just looked at each other. Then with a grunt, the creature stood and moved off the trail, and out of Harry's way.

Harry watched him go for a moment, and then quickly moved along the trail before the creature had a chance to change its mind. As soon as he was around the next bend, Harry's knees gave out and he sat down hard in the middle of the trail.

"Stay on the trail, leaving will cause sorrow…staying will cause dirty underwear…"

Harry sat for a few more moments before slowly and shakily climbing to his feet. He looked behind him once more, and then turning to face forward once more, he continued on his journey.

-DC-

Daphne let out the breath she had been holding. "Dirty underwear indeed…"

-DCM-

Braelik folded his wings and dropped the final few feet to the ground. Anya, grumbled and let go of his ridge bones and dropped to the ground with a practiced ease.

"I just don'a see what tha big rush be husband." She was twisting her torso back and forth to get the kinks out, and to get the blood flowing again.

Braelik meanwhile changed back to his dwarven form and stood. "If'n it be true what was said, then thar be a Winter's Child on the trail to the Heart" came the reply.

Anya stopped and looked at her husband with an angry look. "You cunn'a told me this afor we left? Mountain's mercy Braelik." She moved off towards the citadel. "Din'a they at least tell you what species?"

"Human twas the impression I got."

Anya humphed "That'll be three. You would'a thought we'd be gettin another dwarf after 4000 years."

Braelik "twood be think'n so, but tis magic's choice, you be knowin that luv…"

They made their way inside and moved up the reception hall towards the others gathered inside.

Behind them a very large ape like creature, covered in white hair and steal armor, slowly closed the door to the citadel and returned to his guard post staring out past the shrayken pool and down the trail towards where the Winter's Child would appear.

Braelik and Anya were the last of them to arrive, but that was to be expected as they had the furthest to come to answer the summons. The guard just hoped that this summons wouldn't be in vain like the last one had been. He turned his attention to a small black dot that had just appeared on the horizon. The Winter's Child was here. With a slow deep breath, he stilled all his movements and waited.

-DCM—

Harry stared at the tree blocking his path. It was easily the strangest tree he had ever seen. Its bark and leaves were white, in fact everything on the tree was white. Harry approached the tree slowly, then reached out and put his hand upon the trunk. The tree was cool to the touch, but not the cold that he had expected. Harry looked down at the path that ran right up to the tree, and then continued on on the other side. He looked up. The first branch of the tree was just within jumping distance. Harry looked around the tree again, and then up at the first branch.

"He said stay on the path…" Harry muttered to himself, and jumped up to the first branch. As Harry pulled himself up and looked for the next branch for him to climb onto, he had the stray thought that maybe he would find a branch he could cut for a walking stick. He continued to climb, and when he had reached about half way up the tree he spotted what looked like it would be the perfect branch to cut and make into a walking stick. Harry climbed up to it, and set himself on a lower branch so he could comfortably cut the branch. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the knife. He unsheathed it and set it to the branch to begin cutting.

Just as he was about to make his first cut, he hesitated. He wasn't sure why, but something was telling him that cutting this tree would be wrong. Harry reached out and put his hand on the branch and again was about to make his first cut, when he hesitated again. The thought came to Harry that this wasn't a tree meant to be cut. It was beautiful, and cutting it would damage its perfection, and that doing that would be a mistake. Harry sighed, but he put away his knife. He had come this far without a walking stick; he could make it the rest of the way.

Harry climbed a little ways further, and was able to move to the other side of the tree and climb down. When he got to the lowest branch on the other side of the tree, he noticed that it was several feet higher than the first branch on the other side. He hesitated for several moments, and then dropped himself to hanging below the branch. He swung back and forth a few times, and then dropped heavily to the ground, falling onto his back in the process. As he was lying on his back staring up into the tree a long white stick dropped down from the tree and landed on his chest.

Harry picked it up off his chest and looked at it closer. It was a little over a foot in length, and tapered from one end to the other. Harry felt along the stick and found it to be smooth. When he held it in his hand, it had a feeling of belonging there. Harry had seen people with sticks before, wands, if he remembered correctly.

Harry smiled and stood up. He walked up to the tree, and placing his left hand on the trunk, murmured a quiet, heartfelt thanks. He then turned and continued up the trail.

-DCM-

The sun was close to setting by the time Harry reached the pool. Harry had faithfully followed the trail, except now the trail led into a pool of water. He could see that the trail kept running along the bottom of the pool, which started out shallow, and slowly got deeper until he could no longer see the bottom. Then about 50 yards further on, the pool started getting shallow again. He could tell the pool wasn't natural. Surrounding the pool on all sides were some cut white stones that were about a foot square. Each stone had some odd little carvings on them. On the other side of the pool was a set of white stone steps that led up to a small landing in front of a large set of double doors.

Harry studied the large building on the other side of the pool. Large was an understatement. It was easily the largest building he had ever seen. It was made of a smooth and shiny white stone. Looking at it, Harry got the impressions of strength and majesty. Standing to one side of the landing in front of the large double doors was the largest white ape Harry had seen yet. Even from this distance, he could tell it was enormous. No enormous was too small of a word to describe it. And it was wearing armor. Harry wasn't sure what it was, but he could see the handle of some sort of weapon poking up over one of its shoulders. Harry didn't think that yelling in this one's face would get it to move. He turned back and once again studied the pool before him. 'I guess I could try swimming'.

-DCM-

The gathering in the reception hall was of a very diverse crowd. Each set of couples were different from the others, and yet there was an easy friendship and comradery that existed between all that were present. It was easy to tell that each being here was here with their mates. There were four humans present, two were older with white hair, and a regal bearing, the two younger both had red hair and you could tell by looking them that they were passionate and full of energy. Next to the younger humans was a pair of high elves, full of grace and beauty. In stark contrast to the elves beauty, was a pair of ogres. The male was easily 12 feet tall, with his mate just a head shorter. Contrary to what the world would expect, their eyes glittered with intelligence and they were easily welcomed into the gathering.

A pair of goblins, were talking to the ogres when the dwarves walked up, being the last to arrive. The male goblin turned to the dwarf and greeted him warmly. "Braelik! About time you arrived! Grug was just talking my ear off! I couldn't get a word in edgewise." The ogre in question merely looked down on his diminutive companion and gave a slight smile.

"Ock Goretusk, ifn' Grug be talkin so much, I'll be eatin my boot!" The friends shared a laugh with even the usually silent Grug chuckling at the antics of those around him.

Greetings were given to the two newcomers before the conversation turned to the summons. The small crowd fell silent as the male human with regal bearing cleared his throat.

"Thank you for answer the summons my friends and I wish you all a welcome to The Heart. Long have we waited for a Winter's Child to make their way here and take their place amoung us. Hopefully today is that day. The night winds have long whispered of an ice child being born, and last night he made his way to the monastery below. Today he was set on his path here. He has passed the first two obstacles, and is currently almost to the shrayken pool ". At this there were some apprehensive looks. "If all goes well, he should be entering in a few moments. Shall we all take our places?"

With this, each couple in the group turned and moved towards an alcove that seemed to fit each couple perfectly. The alcove for Grug and his mate, was much larger than the others, and decorated to look like a scene from under the sea. Goretusk and his wife, Shalerock, walked a few minutes with Braelik and Anya. The two wives exchanging pleasantries and talking for a moment before separating, each going to adjoining alcoves. Braelik moved to a stone bench that was obviously made for one. With a wave of his hand, it elongated, and his wife was able to sit next to him.

"You do be knowin that Lord Conrak not be likin when you do doing that." Anya chastised him gently, but sat next to him.

"Lord Conrak do also be knowin that you be me better half, and I'll be a'treatin you as such."

Anya smiled at his words and laid her head on his shoulder.

-DCM-

As soon as he had stepped into the pool, Harry had noticed an eye slowly rise out of the water and turn towards him. Harry hesitated, what was with the eye on a thin arm? He took another small step forward. The eye continued to stare at him. After Harry's third step, another eye rose above the water and turned towards him. It was then that Harry realized something was not right. In fact, something was very wrong. He turned and tried to step quickly out of the pool. He got to the edge when he noticed that he couldn't pull his left leg out of the pool. He fell over the edge, but his leg was held fast. Harry rolled over and looked at his leg. Wrapped partially around his leg was a tentacle that was quickly tightening and starting to pull him back into the pool. Harry felt a stinging sensation from where the tentacle had grabbed him around the ankle. He panicked and started pulling himself back out of the pool. He got most of the way out of the pool, but the tentacle hadn't given up either and gave another hard pull and got Harry back into the pool up to his knees. Harry saw another tentacle making its way towards him under the water and knew he didn't have much time left to act.

Harry remembered his knife, and pulled it out of his pocket. He didn't dare just stab the tentacle, he knew in his excitement he would probably miss and stab his own leg, so he grabbed the tentacle and started to cut across it. He got almost halfway through the tentacle when it finally let go, and Harry scrambled back out of the pool.

The second tentacle rose up out of the water where Harry had been, but didn't make a move beyond the pool to get Harry. He crawled further way from the water, and lay on the ground panting and catching his breath.

'Okay, swimming is definitely out.' Harry had narrowly escaped what could easily have been a disaster.

-DCM-

Borash stood silent and still and watched the drama as it played out at the pool. He was shocked at how young the Winter's Child was. The next youngest one to attempt the journey had been in his early 20's. This child was just that, a child. It was extremely contrary to the nature of the Yetish clans to allow harm to children, no matter what race they were of. It was only his iron will and his training as a warrior that held him still when the child was attacked. He had an inward smile when he saw the boy take out his knife and get free of the shrayken. 'Smart and quick this one is' Borash wondered what the boy would do next.

-DCM-

Harry watched as the tentacles and eyes slowly dropped back down into the pool. He checked his leg and noticed that there were several puncture wounds where the tentacle had wrapped partially around his leg. The area where he had been stung was starting to go numb, and Harry wondered if that was a good thing or not. The monster was now nowhere to be seen, but Harry knew it was probably in the deepest part of the pool, more than likely waiting until he entered the pool again to strike.

Harry had a thought. He bent over and picked up a rock off the trail and threw it into the pool. Immediately both eyes and looking to where the rock had landed, and in a brief moment Harry could see the tentacles there as well.

'So if something breaks the surface of the pool, the monster knows it and will attack.' Harry thought long and hard to himself. 'What if I don't break the surface?' Harry walked up to the pool. He held his hand out and reached for the cold deep inside of himself. Slowly the surface of the pool started to freeze over. Harry focused deeper into himself and let the cold deep inside out.

'Yes! Take that tentacle creature thing!" But Harry's celebration was short lived. As the ice sheet reached the middle of the pool, a giant crab claw shot out of the water and started breaking the ice. The creature was obviously angry now.

Harry stopped freezing the water and stepped back and sat down. He was both disappointed and tired. Freezing the water had been tiring. Harry stared at the pool for several long minutes, deep in thought.

'Okay, not through the pool, not on the pool, how about over the pool? So how do I go over the pool? I can't jump it, I can't fly…what about a bridge?' Harry stood and approached the pool for a third time and held out his hand.

Slowly a set of steps made from ice began to appear in front of the pool. When Harry thought they were tall enough he climbed up them. When he got to the top step, he again held out his hands and started forming a bridge out of ice over the pool. When he had a few feet of bridge made, he stepped out onto it tentatively. He wanted to make sure it would hold his weight before he got too far out over the pool. Finding that it would, he continued making the bridge and moving forward. It was slow going and Harry's muscles were screaming by the time he was almost half way across, but he knew he couldn't afford to stop now. If he did, he may not be able to finish.

Harry got half way over the pool, and was very tempted to glance down into the pool to see if he could see the monster. He decided that that would be a really bad idea and kept going. When he was about three quarters the way across the pool he felt his strength start to give out. He made it about another foot when he had to stop. He tried again to continue, but felt light headed from the attempt. Harry sat down on the ice and closed his eyes. He was close, but saw that he still had almost 15 feet to go before he would reach the other side.

After a few moments an idea came to him. Harry dove deep inside himself and called upon the last of his strength. In his hands he created three small balls of ice. He walked about 10 feet back along his bridge and threw them one at a time into the pool at the end where his bridge started. Sure enough, he saw something very large and dark move towards that end of the pool. The two eye stalks rose out of the water and the tentacles move under the water to where the first ice ball had landed. Harry threw the second and watched as the creature moved even closer to that end of the pool. He waited only a moment and threw the third. As soon as it left his hand, he turned and ran up the bridge towards the opposite end of the pool as fast as he could. When he reached the end of the bridge he jumped off as far as he could. He landed in the pool with a splash about 10 feet from the edge. In full panic mode, Harry wadded as fast as he could towards the edge of the pool. Harry didn't want to risk tripping so he didn't look back. When he got to the other edge, he threw himself out with a panicked cry, and lay on the ground panting.

Harry lifted his head and looked back towards the pool when he heard something splashing closer. What he saw scared him even more. Later Harry would say that it resembled a giant scorpion. It had a stinger on its tail, two large claws and scuttled around on eight legs. It also had what looked like a hard shell on its back for protection. But that is where the similarities ended. Where it's face should have been was a mass of eye stalks and tentacles, each of the eyes were staring at him, and the stalks were waving angrily and moving towards him.

Harry sat up with a cry and ran from the pool towards the steps. When he got to the landing, he turned and looked at the monstrosity behind him. It was all the pools edge stalking back and forth making a careening noise in frustration. He backed up until his back was against the doors and slowly sat down, breathing hard. After a few minutes, Harry looked around. He noticed that the white ape guard was still standing there passively.

"At least you're not attacking me…" Harry could have sworn that he saw a ghost of a smile on the guards face for a brief moment. Harry stayed where he was for a while catching his breath and resting. He was tempted to just lay down right there and take a nap.

After several long minutes Harry stood and turned to the door. He tried knocking on the door, but they were made of stone, and no sound seemed to carry through the door. There was a handle that was at eye level just to side, so he reached over and took it and pulled on the door. The door itself came open far easier than Harry would have thought a stone door should have. But then nothing about this journey had made much sense. For that matter very little had made sense to him since his Uncle had dropped him off in London.

Harry got the door open and looked inside the building into what was the largest room he had ever seen. Along each side of the room were three alcoves, and in each of the three there were two people. Well, maybe not people. He could see what was definitely a dwarven couple on the left, and next to them was another couple that Harry assumed were goblins. The third couple on the left side were human, with fiery red hair. On his right was a tall beautiful couple with long pointed ears, and large almond eyes. The woman was sitting with the man behind her, and she had a very beautiful smile on her face as she looked at Harry. The alcove next to her was empty and dark. But the third on the right side had two very very large beings in it. Both easily making Harry feel very very small. At the head of the room sat a very regal man and his equally beautiful wife, both of whom were wearing smiles and looking at Harry.

Slowly he stepped into the room. As he did so, everyone in the room who was seated stood as well. A feeling of peace and belonging washed over Harry and he knew his journey was at an end.

-DCM-

He had done it! Borash felt a small amount of satisfaction at watching the small child outwit the shrayken, and make it past and into the citadel. He waited until the child had stepped over the threshold and then started moving forward. Once the traveler stepped inside their journey was over, and the rules were relaxed, and assistance could be given. Change was coming, Borash could feel it. And that change would be for the better.

-DCM-

Harry had just opened his mouth to say hello, when he heard a screech behind him, and felt something grab him around the middle and yank him back out of the building. To his surprise and horror the monster from the pool had somehow escaped and grabbed him and was dragging him back to the pool.

-DCM-

Braelik was very pleased to be present when the door started opening. To say he was shocked at the lad who stepped inside was an understatement. Lad was the wrong word for the boy. A babe is what he was. That he had made it and passed his trials so young spoke of the depths of his strength and courage. Braelik heard Anya's shocked curse from where she stood beside him. He knew exactly what she was thinking. The boy was a youngling. Braelik stood and took a step forward to greet the lad. It was then that the child was grabbed from behind by a tentacle and pulled back out of the building. Braelik hesitated for a shocked second. He was brought out of his stupor by the sound of a yeti battle roar, and he knew that Borash was moving to help the boy.

Braelik didn't hesitate again as he moved with all haste toward the door calling up his armor and summoning his battle axe to hand. He saw out of the corner of his eye that the high elf Torak was also moving towards the door at great speed. He already had his sword drawn, and Braelik could see his armor flowing over his body and settling into place.

Both warriors were out the door in a matter of seconds and moving across the landing towards the pool beyond.

-DCM-

Borash too was shocked as he saw a tentacle shoot forward and wrap itself around the Winter's Child, and pull him back towards the pool. How had the shrayken escaped? The pool was warded to keep it in. The answer didn't matter, it had, and the child was in trouble. He had crossed the threshold; he had earned his rest and succor. That was all the thought Borash needed, with a great battle roar the yeti jumped into action. He could see the child trying to hold purchase on the stones surrounding the pool. The shrayken had fully come up out of the water and was standing in the shallow end of the pool, its stinger held high, poised to strike. He was just a few steps away from the boy when he saw him roll onto his back, and that was when the stinger struck down towards the boys head.

Without another thought Borash stepped under the stinger and unsheathing his claws, attempted to catch it before it could strike the cub. He was mostly successful, in that the stinger only had a chance to catch the boy on his forehead, barely piercing the skin. Borash dug his claws into the stinger and with a great roar twisted it until he heard cracking and finally was able to tear the stinger head right off the tail of the shrayken. He went to move back out of the pool, but noticed that while fighting the stinger, the shrayken had grabbed his legs with its claws and was pulling him into the pool. He knew he wasn't a match for this monster, and in a last desperate act grabbed the boy, and threw him up out of the pool as close to the stairs as he could.

-DCM-

Harry felt pain unlike anything he had ever felt before. This was worse than the beating he had gotten from his uncle on his sixth birthday. The one where Vernon had used his belt buckle to beat his back raw and bloody. Harry figured he was dead when he was drug into the pool, and decided if he was going to die, he wanted to see it coming. He had rolled over and saw the stinger descending towards him and knew that this was it. It was then that he felt someone step over him and for a brief moment he felt like he might make it out of this scrape alive. Then the stinger had struck him in the forehead, and not just anywhere, it struck right next to the jagged scar. Harry's head was bounced off the ground and he felt a warm gush of blood and gore run down his face. Mixed with it was a clear substance that burned and itched where it touched his face. Harry felt himself picked up and hurled up out of the pool. He landed with a roll and came to rest face down.

Harry quickly tried to pick himself up and failed miserably and fell down again. He pushed himself back up and wiped off his face with his hand. It came back covered in red, black, and clear fluids. He tried to wipe his hand off on some snow, and felt his hand run into something. Harry grabbed it and felt his hand wrap around his knife handle. He picked it up, and drew it from the sheath. Standing on shaky feet, Harry knew what he had to do.

-DCM-

Daphne sat at the dinner table with her family. Their house elf, Tipsy, had really out done herself with the meal preparations. Tipsy had known that roast goose was Daphne's favorite holiday meal, and had decided to make one to help Daphne feel better. The meal was going splendidly, with some light talk and laughter, Astoria mostly teased her older sister about lazing about all day, when Daphne went shock still.

After a brief moment her head snapped back suddenly and cracked itself against the back of her chair. She fell forward and grabbed her forehead over her right eye where it had started to bleed profusely.

Her parents and sister were shocked and didn't move for a brief moment. Her father finally jumped up, and her mother had moved quickly to her side, when Daphne suddenly grabbed her silver knife from beside her plate.

Again her parents hesitated as the watched their daughter jump up on the table and begin stabbing the roast goose repeatedly all the while screaming at it. After the forth stab, she pushed really hard on the knife, and with another scream 'banished' it down through the goose, the table and into the floor.

Her parents were too stunned to move, until they heard her mutter "Who's your daddy now bitch?" and then collapse on the table unconscious.

-DCM-

"Who's your daddy now bitch?" Harry was atop the monster from the pool and had shoved his knife into the unprotected top of its head repeatedly until in a last act of desperation, had pushed down with his magic and made the knife disappear into the monster's head.

The monster was still twitching when the elf and the dwarf from the building arrived, the elf driving his sword into the head of the monster and the dwarf swinging a massive battle axe and taking off the claw leg that had wrapped itself around the white ape.

Harry felt himself lifted from the back of the monster and gently put on the ground beside the pool. He turned and looked into the face of the elf that was kneeling beside him. The elf pulled out his own shirt, and then quickly tore a strip of cloth from it and began to wipe the muck and gore from Harry's face.

"Can you hear me leafling?" The elf queried Harry with a concerned look in his eye.

Harry couldn't answer, so he just nodded.

"Can you walk, or shall I carry you inside?"

"I think I can walk…" Harry managed to mumble and turned towards the stairs and promptly fell on his face.

Harry felt himself turned over and saw a kindly and wizened face looking at him.

"Ock! Here laddie, let me be takin a look at ya e'fore you run off to fight more beasties…" The dwarf looked closely at Harry's forehead. "It just broke tha skin, but ya got some venom in ya. Let me be putting some loam on it and it'll fix it right up." The dwarf reached into a belt pouch and pulled out a hand full of dirt. "Thar be an old dwarven sayin ta be used if you be hurt. 'Jus rub some dirt in it, and you'll be fine.' "He spoke while gently rubbing the loam onto Harry's forehead. "Now this here be special dirt. Made it meself. It do be having many healing powers, and will fix ya right up."

Harry felt the pain in his head lessen, and was soon almost gone. "See what I be meanin lad?" Harry sat up and nodded his head. "Good lad, now let's get inside. Can't have the guest of honor missing his own homecoming now can we?"

With that the dwarf helped Harry up. Harry looked over to where the elf was helping the guard towards the door, relieved that he was alive. On either side of the door were the people he had seen inside for the brief moment before he was pulled back outside. Standing at the door was the older couple. The woman had tears on her cheeks, and her eyes were shining with a fierce emotion Harry couldn't place.

As Harry slowly made his way up the steps, he looked at each of the others as he passed them. Each of them gave him a slow nod of their heads, and a smile of welcome. When he reached the top of the stairs, the dwarf that was helping him, took his arm off from around his waist and stood to one side. Harry looked up at the man standing before him and felt a wave of awe pass through him. He could feel the power radiating of this man.

The man studied him intently for a moment and then he crouched down so he was eye to eye with Harry. "Welcome to The Heart, Winter's Child. Welcome home."

Harry felt hot tears of relief make their way down his cheeks, and with a smile launched himself at the man and grabbed him into a hug. The hug was soon returned by the man, and then almost instantly Harry felt the arms of the woman encircle them both, and he knew he was indeed home at last.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: I need to apologize to everyone. I had the next couple chapters written for this story and for Nature of Magic as well, and stored on a flash drive along with a good amount of my school work from the last few years. Then like the almost brilliant person I am, I left the drive in the computer lab up on campus. Needless to say it was not turned in, and I was unable to find it. So I have had to re-write the chapters for both stories. I'd blame genetics, but we all know that would be a lie.

-DCM-

Daphne slowly regained consciousness to the sound of voices. Her mother and father were talking softly while in her room. She remembered vaguely having dinner. Then something had struck her in the forehead and caused her head to snap back. It was then that she remembered being angry. Angry and determined. It was with embarrassment that she remembered she had grabbed her silver knife and attacked the roast goose they were having for dinner, after that things went blank.

"Two days Cygnus, I'm starting to get worried. What in Merlin's name has come over her? Banishing her knife through the table and into the floor? Tipsy still can't get it out!"

"I'm not sure love, I suspect that she is now somehow connected to Harry, and I think it has something to do with the crystal he gave her." Daphne had to strain to hear what her parents were saying. Their whispering was quiet, but growing in volume as the conversation continued.

"And her hair? The blue star shape on her forehead? Where did those come from? What is going on with her?"

"I don't know love. We'll talk to her when she wakes and see if she can give us any answers. If not, then maybe we should call in your friend, Healer Tonks, and see if she can make heads or tails of what is going on."

With that her parents quietly left the room. Daphne knew she was sharing a connection with her Harry, and they were sharing experiences and thoughts. She reached up and wrapped her hand around the crystal and felt the cold inside flair briefly in response to her touch. She hoped that Harry woke soon so she could get some answers to give to her parents.

-DCM-

Consciousness came to Harry slowly. His first coherent thought was that his head hurt, and he was a bit sore through his legs and back. His second thought was that he was surrounded by something very soft. Harry reached his hand out and felt that he was laying on fur of some kind. It was soft and comforting, but not too warm. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around at what he could see. He was in a room that bespoke wealth without being opulent and flashy. He was laying on a bed made of a very dark wood. The other furniture that he could see, a night stand, and a wardrobe, were made of the same dark wood. Harry could feel the sunlight that was coming through a set of glass doors in front of him.

He slowly sat up and took a look around the rest of the room. It was quite large. His aunt and uncles house could easily fit inside this room. Looking down at the foot of his bed, Harry saw a large set of double doors. On either side of the doors stood one of the ape guards he had seen by the pool. Both were looking at him expressionlessly. One was shorter than the other, but extremely broad through the chest. The other wasn't as broad, and while big, wasn't as big as the first guard Harry had seen by the pool.

The taller of the two guards nodded to Harry and opened one of the doors and slipped soundlessly out. Harry wondered if he was in trouble or perhaps a prisoner. He remembered the tall human welcoming him to the Heart, and he remembered hugging the man and being hugged in return, but then everything went dark in his memories. Harry must have passed out or fainted right after that. He didn't remember being put to bed.

It only took a moment before the door opened again and the guard returned. Following directly after the guard was the dwarf that Harry remembered from right after the fight by the pool.

"Laddie! You bein awake!" The dwarf smiled and came over towards Harry. "Let me be checkin you jus a bit before you be off causin any more mischief." With this he put his hand on Harry's forehead and closed his eyes while whispering in an unknown language under his breath.

The door opened again and another dwarf, this one female walked in carrying a covered tray. From the smells that accompanied her, Harry guessed it was a tray of food. Harry made eye contact with her and immediately felt love and compassion radiating from her.

Another moment passed and the male dwarf stopped his chanting and was now peering closely at Harry's head. "Tis bein a beauty of a battle scar ye have thar on your head youngin'" The dwarf said to Harry. "The venom of the shraylik seems to have cleansed another curse ye had on ya, and with the loam healin I gave ya, they both seem to be healin right well. The magic in the loam has scar-marked where the stinger got ya, but is quite fetching if'n ya ask me."

"Can I ask a question?"

"Sure laddie, ask away."

"Who are you and where am I?"

Harry's question surprised the dwarf just a bit, and there was a moment of silence. "Ock, lad, I do be sorry, I dinna introduce meself. I be known as Braelik, and this lovely lass here be me bride, Anya." Anya had come to the bed and gently set the tray of food down next to Harry.

"Pleased to meet you Braelik, Anya. My name is Harry." Harry held out his hand towards Braelik, who gently took it in his rough and calloused hand and shook it.

"As to where you be, you be in the Heart, the Citadel of the Wyvern." Anya spoke for the first time.

"Wyvern?" Harry looked a bit nervous.

"Aye" Anya smiled at him, making him feel much better. "Think of them as bein Ancient Dragons, but with a wee bit more intelligence than the modern dragons." She paused for a moment looking at her husband. "Well, most o the time, at any rate…"

Braelik looked a little embarrassed, but smiled at Anya's joke. "Lord Conrak and Lady Lonel will be here in jus a moment to talk to ya, and they be a wantin to answer any and all questions ye be a havin. So's for now, eat up laddie."

Anya set the tray of food down in front of Harry and removed the cover. On the tray was a bowl of a thick hearty stew and some warm fresh bread. The smells alone made Harry's mouth water and he stomach gave a loud growl in anticipation. Harry reached down and took the spoon on the tray and without hesitation took a large scoop of the stew and put it in his mouth. Harry's eyes closed as the flavor of the food overcame him for a brief moment.

"You be likin it lad?" Anya asked him. Harry merely nodded and took another bite.

Anya ruffled his hair and then with the briefest of hesitation leaned over and kissed his forehead. "Good, eat up. There is more if you are still hungry."

She then noticed that Harry had frozen and was staring at her with very wide eyes. She started to get worried at his expression. She also noticed that there were tears starting to form in his eyes. "What be tha matter child?"

Harry's gaze dropped to his lap, his food momentarily forgotten.

"Lad?" Braelik was also becoming concerned.

When Harry spoke, it was with barely a whisper. "I…I've never been kissed by an adult before…" With these words Anya's heart went out fully to the child. She had been hesitant before for fear of becoming too attached to him. But with his soft spoken words, Anya's motherly instincts kicked in and he found himself wrapped in a warm hug and being kissed on his head again.

"Thar be plenty o kisses for ya here child." After a minute, she reluctantly let him go. "Now be eatin up. Twil be a long day o talkin, and then you still have a welcoming feast to be havin tonight. The others be most anxious to be meetin you, and welcomin you home."

Harry smiled and dug into his food, his fears and concerns momentarily forgotten.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

AN: I need to apologize to everyone. I had the next couple chapters written for this story and for Nature of Magic as well, and stored on a flash drive along with a good amount of my school work from the last few years. Then like the almost brilliant person I am, I left the drive in the computer lab up on campus. Needless to say it was not turned in, and I was unable to find it. So I have had to re-write the chapters for both stories. I'd blame genetics, but we all know that would be a lie.

Please take a few minutes and read the other stories I have posted. I am pretty excited about them, and think they will capture your imagination. I also have a poll up on my page that relates to Nature of Magic. Take a minute and give me an answer please.

And now onto some answers. This chapter won't answer them all, but hopefully will put a dent in many you have. More answers will be coming in the next couple chapters, I just didn't want to have one long boring chapter that consisted of only conversations.

As always, please read and review!

Don

-DCM-

As Harry finished his second bowl of stew, one of the large double doors opened and Lord Conrak and Lady Lonel entered into the room. Braelik and Anya both stood and faced the two as they walked towards the bed.

Harry took a minute to study the two new comers. Lord Conrak was taller than Lady Lonel, he stood 5 foot and 11 inches and had a very regal bearing. Whereas Lady Lonel was 5 foot 6 inches and held herself with confidence and grace. Both had the appearance of being in their late 50's if Harry was to guess. But then he didn't know for sure as he hadn't interacted with adults to a great extent. Lord Conrak had short snow white hair with a white close cropped beard, he had the build of an athlete, and a fighter. Lady Lonel was what Harry would call beautiful. She moved with grace and poise, and had vibrant brown eyes that shown with intelligence and compassion.

"Ah! Young Snowlock, you are awake!" Lord Conrak looked at Harry with warmth in his eyes and a smile on his lips. "We weren't too worried after the first day, but were starting to get concerned after the second day."

"I was asleep for two days?"

"Yes indeed little one." Lady Lonel answered him. As she approached the bed she greeted Anya with a brief hug as the two women pressed their cheeks together in a greeting that spoke of familiarity and closeness. "How is your young patient doing Braelik?"

Lord Conrak stood beside the bed and turned to listen to Braelik as he spoke. "He be doin much better. I had to almost be tiein this'n down, he was about to set off on a'nother adventure he was."

Harry blushed a little as the other chuckled at Braelik's statement. "Jokin a'side, I did be noticin that he's magic core be a tad differnt tha you Lady. I be wonderin if's you be willin to take a peek at it."

"Certainly. Do you mind if I cast a few spells on you child?" she asked drawing a wand from her sleeve.

"Ugh, okay..."Harry was hesitant. He had seen wizards and witches use their wands to cast spells before, but the only ones he had seen cast on him where when those black cloaked men cast fire spells at him a few days ago.

"Don't worry child, there will be no pain." Lady Lonel assured him, seeing his apprehension and the fear he held in his eyes. _"What happened to make him fear spell casters?"_ She filed that thought away to figure out later and started moving her wand around Harry in a complicated pattern. She read her results and frowned slightly. Humming to herself in in confusion she recast her spells, getting the same results.

"Braelik, did you notice that a small piece of his magic core is missing?"

"Missing?" Harry's eyes looked up at her.

"Aye, though missing is not bein the right word...mayhap given away but still connected." The dwarf answered.

"Given away?" Harry was now looking at Braelik even more confused. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"By chance did you give something made with your magic to someone else?" Lady Lonel was looking intently into Harry's eyes.

Harry was still confused. "I don't think so..." Understanding came to Harry in a flash of a memory of creating a glowing crystal and giving it to his pretty friend. "Daphne!"

"Daphne?"

Harry blushed a little and looked away from the Lady. "I made Daphne an ice crystal to keep with her so she would know believe me when I told her I could control ice with my magic. I put a little of my magic into it." Harry's explanation came rushing out.

"Does she still have it?" Lady Lonel tilted her head down so she could again look intently into Harry's eyes, searching for an answer.

Harry closed he eyes for a moment and reached out with his magic and after a brief search found Daphne lying in bed holding the crystal thinking of him. He opened his eyes, and with a smile answered "Yes, she is in bed, resting. She is concerned because her parents are worried about her, and she is hoping for some answers to give them to her questions."

"What questions do they have?"

Harry closed his eyes for a moment again. "She doesn't know. But she has been asleep for the last two days, and something has happened to her forehead and her hair. She says she felt like she was hit in the head two days ago, and then jumped up and stabbed the roast goose repeatedly before passing out on the table."

There was silence in the room for several heartbeats while everyone tried to understand what Harry had just told them. It was broken by Braelik who started chuckling, then gave into a full belly laugh. "I do be like'n the sounds of this lass!" He finally said and then laughed some more.

Anya rolled her eyes, but had a smile on her face as well. Even Lord Conrak and Lady Lonel had small smiles on their lips. "She does sound spirited. Daphne, you said her name was?"

"Yes Lady Lonel, Daphne is her name."

"Is she your sister?"

"No, she's my first and only friend."

"How about you tell us about yourself and your friend Daphne, and then Conrak, Braelik, Anya and I will tell you about ourselves, and answer any question you have. We have set aside the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon to talk to you and help you understand just who you are and why you are so important. Then this evening we will all attend the welcoming feast and you can meet the rest of our family. Does that sound good?"

Harry nodded and crossed his legs and made himself comfortable. Harry started as far back as he could remember and told the others in the room what he could about himself. From living with his aunt and uncle because his parents were dead, to staying in the cupboard under the stairs, to Daphne being his first friend because Dudley would beat up anyone who tried to make friends with him while saying that "freaks didn't deserve friends." It took him the better part of two hours, and there were several interruptions when more explanations were required. Especially about how he was treated by his relatives, and Lady Lonel seemed very interested in his friendship with Daphne. Finally he got to the point of leaving the alley because he wanted to keep Daphne safe.

"And then I found myself in the mountains by the stone building" Harry finished his tale. The room was silent as everyone contemplated Harry's words.

That is a most interesting and enlightening tale. It certainly does answer many of the questions we had about you and where you came from. Perhaps you should rest now and let us answer your questions, whatever they may be, how does that sound?" Lord Conrak looked at Harry with a small smile on his handsome face.

"Okay, um where am I?"

"You are in The Heart. It is our citadel, where we all meet. Think of it as a home away from home for the family. We each have our own domains and homes, but all are welcome here at any time. It is also where the family meets for special occasions, such as the welcoming of a new member of the family." At this he smiled at Harry and reached over and ruffled his hair.

"So, family…what family? And I am a part of it now?" Harry sounded unsure of the question.

"That is both a simple and a complex question that I will do my best to answer. In short, yes, you are now a part of our family. Your affinity for snow, ice and the cold shows that you were born as what is called a 'winter's child'. The fact that you were able to make your way here while surviving the testing shows that you have the strength and determination to take your place in the family. The family is made up of individuals from several different races that were each born with an affinity towards an element. Myself I was born with an affinity with air while Braelik has an affinity with the earth."

"What affinity do your wives have?"

"Actually nothing specific, but as our bonded mates, are part of the family and enjoy a long life with us. Well, mostly enjoy." Here he chuckled "At least when we don't make them angry." Lady Lonel was smiling at Lord Conrak

"So only boys are born with this affinity?"

"No, actually Lady Katia has an affinity for fire, and Lady Shoshan has an affinity for spirit. They too have their bonded mates that live with them. In fact you may or may not remember the high elf who helped come to your rescue, Torak, he is bonded to Shoshan."

Harry shook his head, much of the events of a few days ago were blurry to him. "So this affinity makes us what? Wizards?"

"Actually your affinity gives you the ability to one day become a Wyvern. Do you know what a Wyvern is?" Harry shook his head. "A Wyvern is an ancient being very similar to a dragon, except stronger, longer lived, and possessing of elemental affinities. Tell me son, have you ever heard of The Balance?"

Again Harry shook his head. "The balance has been maintained for millennia by the two Councils of Seven. One made of seven Wyvern, and the other of seven Wurms. The Wyvern generally representing the light, and the Wurms representing the dark. For centuries the balance has been maintained. Occasionally one member of one council or the other died, either in battle or, in the case of the Wurm council, due to politics, and another was raised to take their place, thus keeping the balance. For each affinity on the Wyvern Council, there is an affinity on the Wurm council, thus keeping a steady balance in all things."

"So I am the winter Wyvern?"

"Yes and no, yes in that you have the ability to grown into the winter Wyvern, and no, as in you have not yet grown into your role. That is where the family comes in. We will each teach you what you need to know, and what you need to do to grow into your position in the family. Not only will we teach you, but we will protect and nurture you. You are now our brother, our son, and our friend. Race matters not here young Snowlock, you are now family."

Harry was overcome with emotions that threatened to spill. "I would like that, I would like to have a family." Harry felt himself gathered into the arms of Lady Lonel and held gently

"You have a family now child, we will never leave or abandon you, I promise." Lady Lonel knew her words would affect the boy deeply due to what his human family had done to him less than a year ago. She promised herself she would seek retribution on them for the harm they had done to the precious boy in her arms.

"Why doesn't anyone call me by name?" came the soft whispered question in her arms.

"Ah, I was wondering when you would notice that." Lord Conrak looked pleased. "When you arrived at The Heart, you left your old life behind, and started a new one. While there are some things you will keep connected to, and yes I am talking about Daphne" Lord Conrak could see the boy was getting concerned. "And perhaps one or two other things, for the most part you will be starting your new life, and tonight, as part of your welcoming to the family, you will be given a new name, symbolizing your new life."

"So what is my new name?"

Lady Lonel smiled at the eagerness in Harry's voice. "You will get that tonight child." She again hugged him tight.

"Why did you call me snowlock?"

Lord Conrak shared a brief look at his wife and then looked back at Harry. "You have not looked in the mirror yet have you?" Harry shook his head. "It seems during your battle with the shrayken, when he stung you on your forehead, some of the venom got into your hair, and turned a small patch of it white."

"It is rather fetching if you ask me." Lady Lonel ran her fingers through Harry's hair. "And just a bit dirty, perhaps a bath is in order before the welcoming feast?"

Harry blushed and nodded his head. A bath actually sounded quite good right now.

"I think that is a splendid idea love, we don't want to overwhelm the lad with too much all at once. I promise we will continue our discussions and answering your questions in the days to come. Is that alright?"

Harry nodded. "Good then, your bath is through the door to the left here, and when you are done, fresh clothes will be on your bed for you to wear."

Harry stopped for a moment and looked at the adults in the room. "I didn't bring any more clothes…" He trailed off in uncertainty.

"Donna be worrin laddie, Anythin you be needin will be given to you. You do be family now…" Harry's smile and gratitude shown on his face, and he turned and made his way into a large bathroom.

"I'll just be da first ta be sayin it. I am a thinkin of visitin the lad's relatives and be havin a talk with em." Braelik's voice was low and hard.

"A splendid idea Lord Braelik. Perhaps in a day or two, after the child settles in" Lord Conrak agreed readily.

Any further discussion was cut off as a half-naked boy poked his head out of the bathroom with a question on his face. "Erm…how does the tub work?" Harry asked embarrassed at not being able to figure it out.

With a chuckle Braelik answered him "I'll be showin ya laddie." He then quickly moved to help the boy get cleaned up.

-DCM-

The light of the fires reflected hotly off the surfaces of the black walls of the cave. Firebrine normally enjoyed the heat the fires gave off, deep under the ground. But today the heat was a bit stifling and getting on his nerves. That or it was the other members of the Wurm Council, one of which was speaking at the moment. Skaltine was getting very uppity, and would need to be put in his place again soon. Firebrine didn't want him getting any ideas.

"So you decided, on your own, to strike at the newest Winter's Child! What gives you the right to decide on such actions? You weren't even successful. If you can't even take care of one little puny human child, what makes you think you have what it takes to keep leading this council?" There it was, the challenge to his leadership.

Quicker than Skaltine could blink, Firebrine had him by the throat and was lifting him from his seat. There was a reason all members of the council had to attend in their original forms, fights like this were common, and fighting in their Wurm forms would be messy.

"Is that a challenge?" Firebrine's front teeth elongated and became very sharp, his vampire heritage coming quickly to the front.

Skaltine knew he couldn't take Firebrine in a face to face fight, his Dark Elf heritage just wasn't a match for Firebrine's vampire background, he would need to back pedal and try and see if he could catch him off guard when his back was turned.

"No, no…I was just saying that perhaps if we had worked together we could have gotten the child and killed him, nothing more my Lord!"

Firebrine dropped the pathetic elf on the ground and returned to his seat. "It matters little that the child got away, we still maintain the majority, and with my wife having usurped the winter child's place in the Wyvern Council, we will always maintain the majority. If he wants to take his rightful spot he will need to both find her and kill her, and that isn't likely to happen."

"And where is your wife?" Quinnion, the Water Wurm asked with barely feigned interest.

"Sleeping" was the only answer he received.

Firebrine rose from his chair and moved towards the back of the cave. "This meeting is over." He moved out of the chamber, back into the shadows and left the rest of the council looking at one another.

Skaltine and Quinnion shared a brief look that spoke volumes. Then they rose and joined the others of the council in exiting the chamber.

In his private chamber, Firebrine moved over to a small chest and with a slight hesitation, slowly opened the lid, and started rummaging around inside. Having finally found what he was looking for, he pulled out a small painting of an exceptionally beautiful woman. She had high cheek bones, and dark intense eyes that shown with an intense malice.

"Clarisa, my love, where are you? Why do you still sleep?"


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

**IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE! PLEASE READ!**

Ok, ok…I asked for the feedback, and I got it. I had thought for a brief shining moment I was being clever when I thought of a tie in and added Medusa at the last minute. Obviously I was wrong, and it turned out my brief moment of inspiration was really nothing more than too much caffeine, too much physics homework, and too little pondering and foresight. On this note, I have taken her out, and put back in the original OC that I had planned. This will not change the story arc in any way, keeps it original and moves back from the border of a cross over.

I have had several people mention the familiarity of Harry's powers to the movie Frozen. Let me set the record straight, I started writing this story while on my internship in Alaska this last summer, if anything I should be suing Disney for stealing my idea! (Yea right – like that's going to happen). It is true that Harry now has a lock of hair that has turned white, and yes that happened in the movie as well, but the idea is a homage to one of my favorite authors – Tad Williams (head nod to jslee102) and his Green Angel Tower series. Keep in mind too please, that he wasn't the first one to use the idea. I know David Eddings used it. Polgara had a lock of white hair from where Belgarath, her father, touched her head the first time he held her.

And finally, I was worried that when I started writing the "answer questions, fill in holes" chapters that the story might start getting bogged down and it seems that has happened just a bit, at least that is the way that it feels to me. So rather than slog through more questions and answers, I am going to break it up into chunks with explanations as the action continues. So if I miss explaining anything, please message me in a review or even a PM and I will work to rectify my mistake.

I know this update is quicker than expected…think of it as an apology for the whole Medusa snafu.

Don

-DCM-

Lucius Malfoy strode down Knockturn Alley with a determined, angry stride. Anyone he came across quickly moved out of his way and went about their business. Getting in Malfoy's way or on his bad side was usually bad for your health, and the people in the alley knew it.

Lucius entered a familiar dark and dirty pub and strode quickly across the dimly lit interior to an occupied table in the back corner. He stood at the table and looked at the current occupants with a haughty sneer on his pale face.

"Move….Now!" came the demand with more than a hint of violence laced in it.

The men that currently were using the table took one look at the man standing before them and wisely took their drinks and business to another part of the tavern.

Lucius drew his wand and cast a quick cleaning charm at the table and seats, and sat down with a scowl on his face while deep in thought. How had it gone wrong? His plan had been perfect. He was able to play on the public's fear for the young boy, and made a very successful petition to the Wizengamot for custody of the brat. It even helped that Albus bloody Dumbledore wasn't in attendance, he was out looking for the Potter boy when it was called for a vote.

Then taking his new guardianship papers to the bank, he demanded to be seen by the bank director, Rooknuk, Ragsnot…whatever the little blighter's name was. He had given the papers to the runt and demanded that funds be transferred to him for the 'search' for the boy, and for 'reasonable expenses' for caring for him. Honestly, 50,000 Galleons a month was extremely reasonable, he was an important man, and his time was valuable. Never mind that the higher paid ministry employees were paid 12,000-15,000 a year for their work.

Lucius picked up the glass of fire whiskey that had been set before him a moment before and drank it down in one quick swallow. The burning liquid settled in his stomach and he felt a slow warmth spread through his body. He motioned to the bar tender for more.

What really had Lucius angry was when the little shite had laughed at him, and told him the Potter vaults were sealed and only someone with Potter blood could open them again. He had then looked at Lucius with a feral grin and told him that his underhanded attempt to steal the Potter fortune wouldn't work. Underhanded? Underhanded? Malfoy's were never underhanded…everything was perfectly legal. How dare that little rock biter make such wild accusations.

Lucius' drinks had arrived. "Bring me the bottle" he demanded. The bar tender acknowledged the order and left. He returned shortly with the bottle, set it on the table, and left again.

The pinnacle of Lucius' humiliation, and what made him the angriest, was when the goblins had the audacity to throw him out of the bank! Not just kick him out, but physically throw him out onto the steps of the bank, telling him he was unwelcome in the bank for the next six months! Him! Lord Lucius Malfoy! Head of the Noble family of Malfoy.

Lucius picked up his glass and threw back another shot of whiskey and slammed the glass back down on the table.

"Didn't go as planned Malfoy?" Lucius hadn't noticed the other man walking up to the table, but didn't mind his company and gestured an empty chair at the table.

The man sat down and studied the first occupant carefully. "Rumor has it the goblins tossed you out."

"Rumors already? It's been what, 20 minutes?" Lucius was angry and bitter.

"Not really, I got to see it first-hand. I was in the area at the time."

Lucius regarded the man angrily while pouring himself another drink. "What do you want Nott?"

Theodore Nott Sr. regarded the man across from him for a moment before finally speaking. "It's not about what I want Lucius, it's about what you want." He went silent again.

The quiet between the two men stretched between them. "I am not in the mood for your petty games Nott, either spit it out or leave me."

Theodore sighed and took the bottle of whiskey and poured himself a drink into the glass the bartender had put on the table for him. He picked up the drink and took a small sip while gathering his thoughts.

"There is a report I read in the DMLE that made some very interesting statements. Statements that could point you in the right direction if you are so 'concerned' about the Potter boy that you want to find him."

"Who wrote the report?"

"Some nameless auror that was on the scene shortly after the attack."

"And what, pray-tell did the report say?"

"That a young girl, Daphne Greengrass, was friends with the Potter boy, and was with him before he disappeared."

"Greengrass you say…" Lucius trailed off, his mind working in overdrive. After a few minutes of pondering this new information another thought came to him. "Where is this report now? How valid is it?"

"That's the thing. When I went to look for it again, it was gone. Not only that, but the whole case file has been sealed."

"Sealed? By who?"

"Dumbledore."

Lucius' eyebrows hit his hairline as he looked hard at Theodore. "Dumbledore you say…that means it is true…interesting."

The men drank in silence for a few moments before it was broken by Theodore Nott. "So what is your plan now? I know you well enough to know you have one already."

Lucius looked at his companion for a brief moment. "I think it is time to call some friends and go visit Lord Greengrass…at home…we have some….Wizengamot business, to discuss." A slow satisfied smirk spread across his face.

"I thought as much."

-DCM-

"Balance Hadrian, keep your balance, everything must always be in balance. Good, now one foot."

Torak, High Elf, Blade-master, male Consort of the Wyvern Shoshan, teacher, mentor, pain in the arse…at least that was what the boy now named Hadrian Snowlock was thinking while trying to maintain his currently one-legged stance. His front leg was currently bent at the knee and his foot was being held a few inches off the ground, while his other leg was bent slightly at the knee. His arms were held strait out from his body, his head held high, with his eyes closed.

"Good, now hold that stance and clear your mind and breath as Master Ishito taught you."

Hadrian tried to clear his mind. It was hard, especially for a seven year old boy. His mind kept trying to wonder, well, it was his stomach that was wondering, it was almost breakfast time.

"Stop thinking about food and breathe Hadrian" the admonishment came again. Hadrian sighed, and tried to clear his mind again. Thoughts of the last month and the changes in his life came unbidden to the front of his consciousness. Meeting the Wyvern Council, receiving a new name, being welcomed into his new family, starting his training with both Master Ishito and Lord Torak, being shown more kindness and love in these first few weeks than he had been shown at his Aunt and Uncle's house. Sometimes it was a bit overwhelming, but Hadrian was taking it in stride as best as he could.

"How is Daphne doing on her stance?" The question brought Hadrian back to the present. Daphne had been following along with Hadrian's training using their link. She readily and willingly awoke early in her day to participate and was doing much better at it than he was. He quickly followed the link to Daphne and found her holding the stance much easier than he was. Must be a girl thing.

"A lot better than I am sir" came the respectful answer. Outside of class, his teachers and mentors were fun and relaxed, but in class demanded and readily received the respect deserved of Masters of their field.

Torak studied his young pupil closely. For being so young, and having just started he was doing very well. Not that Torak would tell him that directly. It was best to praise sparingly lest the praise become too common and expected, therefore loose meaning. He and Master Ishito had been surprised when Hadrian had asked if Daphne could join their training through using link. Such telepathy, if it could be called that, was extremely rare. Both men readily agreed, seeming to know this girl was important to the boy, and would only become more so as time went on.

A small smile played across Hadrian's face before it was quickly replaced with a more neutral expression.

"Hadrian?"

The small smile returned quickly and bloomed into a full blown grin. "Daphne's stomach just growled, and she wants to know when you are going to quit torturing us and let us go to breakfast."

Torak stared at the boy with one raised eyebrow. After a short moment he let out a brief quiet sigh. "I suppose we can be done for the morning, for Daphne's sake." That grin on the boy's face was much too infectious, and Torak smiled a small smile. "Bow out young Resh'ahn, and go get cleaned up for the day."

"Yes Master Torak." Hadrian quickly moved to the Resting stance and brought his hands together in front of him, the left hand open, palm facing forward, with the right hand closed into a fist, resting in the palm of the left.

Torak joined him in the Resting stance and together they took a moment to ponder the lessons learned during the day. When the moment had passed, Torak spoke of the lesson he had learned that day "The wind may pass through the trees, but the leaves will always dance."

Hadrian was getting used to Master Torak saying things that didn't seem to make sense. "Keeping your knees bent will help you keep your balance." Torak nodded.

"Daphne says 'Wear pajamas not a night dress next time.'" Torak nodded again, this time with a smile.

"Good, now run along little sprouts and get cleaned up and refreshed. Remember your lessons with Lady Shoshan after breakfast, and them mediation with Master Ishito after lunch."

Hadrian bowed respectfully to Lord Torak and walked off the soft mat. When he got to the door, he picked up his shoes and left the room.

Torak watched him go, and then turned to Lord Conrak who had been watching from the back of the room.

"My Lord, good Sunrise to you" Torak bowed his head respectfully in greeting.

"Good Sunrise to you as well, Lord Torak" Conrak nodded in return and walked over to join the High Elf on the mat, after removing his slippers.

"How are the children coming with their balance training?" genuine concern was laced in the question.

"Very well. They seem to push each other, though I must admit training two children when only one is in the room, is a unique experience."

"Indeed, this bond between them is something rare. I would call it advantageous, though my wife would call it romantic and beautiful." Lord Conrak had a loving smile on his face as he spoke of his wife.

"Shoshan called it deeply spiritual." The men shared another smile.

"Would you do me the honor of allowing me to join you and your lovely wife in your Waking Kata this morning Lord Torak?"

"We would be honored My Lord" the reply came from Lady Shoshan as she moved across the room towards the men. "Will Lady Lonel be joining us as well?"

"No, she wanted to have breakfast with Hadrian this morning. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say her mother instincts are kicking again. She had mentioned a few days ago she was hoping the lad would come to feel comfortable enough to call her mum."

Lady Shoshan looked off into space for a moment, her eyes unfocused yet searching. Then she smiled a beautiful smile. "Yes…yes he shall, and he will come to call you dad as you and your wife will come to call him son, and the family will come to be whole again."

The men were quiet while listening to Lady Shoshan speak. She was known to see and feel things that others couldn't, and both men had learned to listen when she spoke.

Her eyes came back into focus on the men before her. "But let us ponder our family later, and focus on our Wakening, the fruit of the morning is waiting." This was the closest she would ever come to saying she was hungry.

With that, the three stepped into the Resting Position and began their kata.

-DCM-

Daphne sat in mediation, legs crossed, her hands clasped, resting in her lap. She took a deep breath in through her nose and slowly released it, exhaling through her mouth. Master Ishito had patiently taught them these meditating exercises over the last three weeks. He had begun after letting Hadrian and Daphne recover from their shared adventure for a week.

Daphne had been able to assuage her parents fear about the bond that she and Hadrian shared, and with some reluctance had agreed to allow her to participate. It had been touch and go for several days, with questions about the bond being asked and others answered the best they could. The closest example to what the children had was a soul bond, and even then, the last one experienced was between the Flamels several hundred years previously.

It had been decided to try and keep the bond quiet, lest someone try and take advantage of it to cause harm to either Hadrian or Daphne. What to do when the children left for Hogwarts would be decided later.

Hogwarts, that was another long discussion. While Lady Lonel was a witch and used a wand. She knew very little other than healing, and thought it best to teach Hadrian what she could and help prepare him to go to Hogwarts with Daphne when they turned eleven. He would be enrolled under the name of Hadrian Snowlock, as to try and keep as much unwanted attention from himself as possible. Going as Harry Potter, a name and a life he had left behind, would only serve to complicate his life needlessly. Being attached at the hip to Daphne was going to be enough of a complication. One neither child was willing to compromise on. Lord Conrak had said he would take care of all the arrangements with the school when the time had come.

Lord Conrak, and Lady Lonel. There was another situation that had floored her parents. When they had learned that they were now involved with the Lord and Lady of the Wyvern Council, her parents had both come unglued. Her father had gone pale and silent for several minutes, and her mother had fainted on the spot. It was mostly because they were involved, that Daphne was allowed the leeway she was given to both keep the ice crystal, and to use it to train with Hadrian. Her mother had been all for removing it when she had first started trying to explain what was going on to her. The appearance of the light blue star shaped scar on her forehead, and the lock of white hair above it had set her mother off right from the beginning, especially when it was learned that Hadrian had the same scar and lock of white hair now.

Daphne was making very good progress on her meditation and was able to block out or ignore most of what was going on around her. That is why she didn't hear the shouts and spell fire that was coming from downstairs until it was almost too late. She could feel something was wrong and had begun coming back to awareness when the door to her bedroom was blown in. Pieces of wooden shrapnel knocked her down, leaving cuts on her arms, legs and body, with a nasty cut on her scalp that immediately started bleeding profusely.

"She's in here!" She looked up in confusion at the man who was striding towards her. What she saw made her eyes go wide in shock. Coming into her room and walking towards her was a man in long black robes wearing a white mask.

Deatheaters! Rang through her mind, and she started screaming.

-DCM-

Hadrian had for the first time managed to clear his mind for longer than two minutes. Quite an accomplishment for such an energetic young boy. Master Ishito was sitting before the boy also meditating, though he was more aware of his surroundings. Currently he was listening to his breathing. It was slow and steady, seven beats in, six beats out, seven beats in, six beats out. Two minutes had passed with this same rhythm. Good, the boy had been able to clear his mind. He was also aware of the Yeti guard, Borash, standing close. Borash and Hadrian had been almost inseparable since they had both recovered from their battle. Lord Conrak had smiled and easily granted Borash's request to be released from the guard to bind himself to his 'battle brother'. Ishito didn't fully understand the Yeti code of honor, but something about saving each other during battle formed a bond. Two of Borash's fellow guards, Amnock and Dorvan, both related to Borash, had also asked to be released and bound themselves in the service of young Snowlock. He seemed to be quickly winning over friends and followers.

Ishito was suddenly pulled from meditation when Hadrian took a sharp intake of breath. He opened his eyes and looked at his young pupil. Hadrian's eyes were open wide in fear and shock and he had blood running freely down the side of his head from what looked like a very nasty scalp wound.

Ishito and Borash were by his side in the blink of an eye, Borash quickly standing over the boy, covering him with his own body from whatever danger had hurt him and looking around to find it.

"Daphne!" The boy screamed very loudly and started looking around wildly. Ishito felt the temperature start to drop suddenly and had a sudden inspiration of what was about to happen. He reached out quickly and grabbed Hadrian's arm, and placed his other hand on the Yeti. With a sudden burst of snow and ice, all three were gone.

Amnock burst into the room to see the flakes of snow settle on the meditation floor and knew something was very wrong. Her turned and started sounding an alarm.

-DCM-

'_Crucio'_ the spell slammed into Cygnus causing him to start screaming again, white hot knives of pain piercing deep into every nerve of his body. The curse was held on him for several seconds before it was finally stopped.

Clarity was slow in coming back to him. "I grow tired of asking Greengrass, where is Harry Potter? Perhaps, I should be asking your wife" the masked man said gesturing to the woman who was wrapped in magical ropes, and was laying on the floor next to an unconscious five year old girl. "Perhaps she would know. Or better yet, should I ask your daughter? It seems she is friends with the boy."

It was then that another deatheater entered the room and dropped the bleeding and battered young girl in question on the floor next to her father.

"Daddy!" the girl sobbed and grabbed hold of her father. He gently raised a hand and tried to hold her close, and give her what comfort he could.

"What took so long?"

"The tart put up a bit of a fight. I had to rough her up a bit."

Cygnus' eyes flashed in anger. "Touch my family again, and I will kill you all!"

The man in black looked back and Cygnus. "Still some fight left in you." It was a statement, not a question. "Good, it will make it more fun to break you." He stopped to consider the father and the crying girl that were on the floor in front of him. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let your family live Greengrass. Tell me where Harry Potter is."

"Go to Hell areshole!" It wasn't the father that answered, it was the child. "I don't know any Harry Potter!"

The girl spoke with a very large amount of conviction. It made the masked man pause for a moment. A brief thought crossing his mind. '_I hope she is lying, Malfoy is going to be pissed if this was all for nothing'_. He brought his wand up with a curse on his lips. He was stopped by the sound of a sudden burst of air, and the tinkling of ice against the window.

"DAPHNE!" There was a shout from just outside. The man looked at the young girl, who suddenly had a wide eyed expression on her face. He reached down and grabbed her by the back of her hair, and pulled her to his feet, and moved to the window to see what had made the sound, and who was calling for the girl. He was almost to the window when there was a loud roar and a sudden splash of blood splattered across the window followed by what looked like an arm, still holding a wand in its hand. The man's blood ran cold.

-DCM-

Hadrian, Ishito and Borash landed in front of a pair of dark wooden doors that looked like they had been blasted off their hinges. Standing just to the side of the doors was a man in a long black robe wearing a white mask. He was looking into the house, and had turned and looked at the new comers in surprise.

Ishito took advantage of the man's surprise and rushed forward and with a jump, kicked the man in the side of the head, causing him to pitch to the side, and fall into some rose bushes knocked out.

"_Sectariusí"_ a voice from nearby spoke, and a thin red line flashed towards the three. Borash quickly stepped in front of the spell, and received a large cut along the back of his shoulder.

Borash roared in anger, turned, and in a single jump was upon the caster with one hand wrapped around his body, and the man's arm in his other paw. Borash gave an overpowered tug and the man's arm was ripped off and flung towards as set of nearby window. Without looking at the lost arm, he then grabbed the man's head in his paw and then squished the man into a bloody pulp before dropping him to the ground.

Ishito and Hadrian had moved up to the house and were entering. Ishito had pulled his staff from his pocket and expanded it, and Hadrian had his knife in his hand. Borash looked quickly around and saw no one else dressed in black robes, so he quickly moved to enter the house as well, making sure to step on the chest of the fallen man Ishito had kicked earlier. Better safe than sorry. He entered the house while unsheathing his claws, and looked for his next fight. It was better to get as many as possible before their advantage of surprise was lost. He saw two other black robed men descending the stairs in across the room and in two great bounds was upon them. They had barely registered the presence of the Yeti when he reached the first. With a massive back hand, the first crashed into the wall with a loud crunch of bones breaking.

The second managed to get a stunner off at the Yeti, but he shrugged the spell off and grabbed the man in his vice like grip, his claws quickly ripping into the man, piercing his heart and lungs. He had a look of surprise on his face as he died quickly.

Ishito and Hadrian had entered the house quickly, and Ishito wasn't sure where he was going, he turned to look at Hadrian, and saw the boy quickly move up the entry way and turn into the first room on the right. He moved quickly to follow, but had to duck back, as there was a red flash, and a spell came out the door. After it passed, he quickly ducked in and moved to the left in case there was another. He took a brief glance around the room to assess the situation. There were two black robed men in the room, one was holding onto the hair of a young blonde girl that he immediately knew was Daphne. The other was turned away from Ishito, facing towards the center of the room where Hadrian was in the middle of jumping off a coffee table at the man holding Daphne.

Ishito took advantage of the second man's distraction and quickly slammed his staff into the man's extended wand arm, causing him to drop this wand from his now broken arm. He then followed up his strike by clubbing the man in the back of the head. When he had made sure the man was out of the fight he turned towards the last black robed man in the room.

This man had been taken by surprise by Hadrian jumping at him without pause, and been unable to fend him off. Hadrian had managed to plant his knife into the right shoulder of the man and knock him down. He had had to let go of Daphne, who had fallen with the man and Hadrian. Ishito moved quickly across the room and knocked the man out with a very well placed jab of his staff to the forehead of the man.

Hadrian stood and looked wildly around the room for Daphne.

"Hadrian!" Daphne jumped up and wrapped him into a crushing hug.

"Daphne!" Hadrian returned the hug.

"How many men attacked?" Ishito moved towards the door in case there were more.

"S…s…six that I kn…know of." Came the answer from a shaken and scared Lady Greengrass.

"Borash?" Ishito looked at the blood covered Yeti who let out a series of grunts and various garbled noises in response.

"It seems we got them all, but perhaps it would be best if we were careful until help arrives?" Borash grunted in agreement and moved to guard the door.

Ishito moved to Melinda Greengrass and began freeing her from the ropes that held her bound. The smaller child was still unconscious, but looked unhurt. "Are you hurt Lady Greengrass?" he asked while freeing her.

"No, I'm fine. Please look to my husband, he was hurt the worst."

Ishito moved quickly to the fallen Lord and knelt beside him. "Let me help you to the couch so you may rest until help arrives."

"H…he….help is…is…com…coming?" The shaken Lord managed to get out between chattering teeth and twitches.

"I imagine it will be here shortly, young Hadrian is of high priority to the family."

"F..fa….fam….family?"

It was then that there was a loud thump outside the house, followed by and even louder thump. Quickly two more Yeti's came bounding in the house. These were both covered in armor, and carrying very large weapons. They both moved quickly to the first Yeti, with one handing him a very large battle hammer, and grunting to him.

Borash grunted in thanks to Amnock for bringing his battle hammer, and then sent him and Dorvan to survey the house and grounds for further danger.

Shortly on their heels, came a High Elf in ornate but functional armor, carrying a long sword, and behind the elf came a rugged dwarf also in armor but carrying a battle axe almost as large as him.

Hadrian still had ahold of Daphne in a tight hug, and didn't look like he was planning on letting go anytime soon. She was sobbing and holding him just as tight.

"Dinna ya remember ta save me one this time laddie?" Braelik's question caused Harry to turn and look at the dwarf.

He shook his head and looked slightly ashamed. "I don't think so Lord Braelik. I think between Master Ishito and Borash, we got them all."

"Ock! Justa wee bit selfish of yas to be a takin all the fun now, init?" The dwarf looked hard at the young boy.

"I'm sorry Braelik, I will try to remember next time." The dwarf looked at him for another moment and then nodded.

A very large shadow passed in front of the window followed by a very large thump. Hadrian looked at Braelik in surprise. "Lord Conrak came to help?"

"Of course laddie, you dinna think he would be a lettin he's new son run off ta a fight without him?" Hadrian suddenly looked surprised and nervous. "Wunna surprise me ta be seein Lady Lonel bein with him. Thou she may be a bit more angry tha ya ran off to a battle without more help." Hadrian suddenly looked very nervous.

Cygnus Greengrass had sat on the couch and listened to the by play of the new comers while trying to recover from the attack. Melinda had revived Astoria and was working to keep her calm and they sat together. He had thought he was going to have a quiet morning with his family, then attend a meeting at the Ministry in the afternoon. His wards told him this morning, that someone was approaching the door, and he had moved to greet them. He was near the door when it was blown in, and he discovered that it was several men dressed in black robes, with white masks, and not just one man. He knew he was in trouble, and neither he nor his wife stood a chance amid the spell fire that followed the door being blasted in.

It was the mention of Lord Conrak and Lady Lonel that brought him back to attention.

"Lord Conrak? Lady Lonel? Melinda, please, help me stand." He was determined to meet two of the most powerful beings on the earth while on his feet. He was surprised when the High Elf moved swiftly to his side and gently helped him to stand. His surprise was redoubled when the elf stepped back slightly and then stood behind him to help support him in case he was too weak to remain standing.

He only had to wait for a moment before an extremely regal man and woman entered the room. The man was wearing a breast plate with a sword buckled on his side. He didn't look angry, just alert. After making a brief survey of the room and making sure everyone was safe, he relaxed slightly and turned to Cygnus, meeting his eyes. The woman that entered with him was beautiful beyond words. She too wore a breast plate, and had a short sword strapped to her hip. She didn't look around the room, she seemed to only have eyes for the young blood splattered boy. She quickly brushed past the man, and wrapped Hadrian into a strong hug. Because he still had his arms around Daphne, she was included in the hug, neither child resisting.

"Lord Greengrass." Cygnus' attention once again snapped back to the man standing before him. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lord Conrak, and this is Lady Lonel, our companions are Lord Braelik and Lord Torak." He gestured to his wife who still had the children wrapped in her arms, the dwarf and the High Elf. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, I have been looking forward to it ever since Hadrian joined our family."

Cygnus Greengrass was frantically trying to process the words he was hearing. He was still suffering from post-exposure to the _crucio_ curse, which wasn't helping his thought process.

"P…pp..please, be..be welcome my Lords an..and…L…Lady…" He swayed on his feet, and felt the elf behind him wrap an arm around him in support.

"Please, there has been a fight, and you are obviously hurt, let us look to your family, there will be plenty of time for formality and introductions after you and yours are taken care of."

Cygnus nodded in agreement and felt himself being gently lowered back to sit next to his wife and daughter. He saw Lady Lonel waving a wand over Hadrian and Daphne checking for injuries.

"None of it is mine! I swear!" the boy was protesting.

"And from this cut on your head?"

"That doesn't count!"

Lady Lonel could be heard muttering under her breath "doesn't count"…she then turned and looked at Braelik. "Do you have some loam Braelik? It seems the children are in need of some."

"Ock! Of course I do!" The dwarf moved over to the children while reaching under his armor for his pouch.

"Don't ever scare me like that again Hadrian! I was so worried!" She looked intently at the young boy.

"I'm sorry mum, I didn't mean to scare you. Daphne just needed me…"

Lady Lonel had taken a small intake of breath at the word mum, and quickly had tears in her eyes. She reached out and wrapped the small boy in her arms again. Lord Conrak had also given a start when he heard Hadrian call Lonel mum, and after the smallest moment, smiled a small smile. It had been a tense and rough few minutes, but he knew it was going to turn out alright.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

**AN:** I have had several people mention the similarity of Harry's powers to the movie Frozen. Let me set the record straight, I started writing this story while on my internship in Alaska this last summer, if anything I should be suing Disney for stealing my idea! (Yea right – like that's going to happen). It is true that Harry now has a lock of hair that has turned white, and yes that happened in the movie as well, but the idea is a homage to one of my favorite authors – Tad Williams (head nod to jslee102) and his Green Angel Tower series. Keep in mind too please, that he wasn't the first one to use the idea. I know David Eddings used it. Polgara had a lock of white hair from where Belgarath, her father, touched her head the first time he held her.

I was worried that when I started writing the "answer questions, fill in holes" chapters that the story might start getting bogged down and it seems that has happened just a bit, at least that is the way that it feels to me. So rather than slog through more questions and answers, I am going to break it up into chunks with explanations as the action continues. So if I miss explaining anything, please message me in a review or even a PM and I will work to rectify my mistake.

Don

-DCM-

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was not having a good month. In fact, if he were pressed on the point, he would be quick to admit that it had been one of the hardest he had had since the war ended almost seven years ago. First had been the mysterious and as of yet, unsolved attack on Diagon Alley, then the rumors that Harry Potter had not only been there been there, but was the target of the attack, then going to his relatives home and finding out that little Harry had indeed been abandoned in London, thus giving credence to the rumors of him being in the alley, then there was the long and fruitless search for the boy. From the information he had gathered, the boy had employed some sort of apparition and disappeared. Albus had done his best to hush the rumors of Harry being there, and of his subsequent disappearance, but somehow they had gotten out. While Albus had been out searching, Lucius Malfoy had seized the opportunity to push a measure through the Wizengamot granting him custody of Harry Potter.

Not that it had done him any good. If rumor had it, Lucius had tried to use his guardianship to get his hands on the Potter fortune, and somehow ended up banned from Gringotts for six months. Albus knew it was more important than ever to find Harry and hide him away again before Lucius Malfoy got his hands on him. Then he would do what needed to be done and take back guardianship of the boy.

It was to that end that Albus found himself where he was today. He had spoken to Cygnus Greengrass a few days after the attack, and had determined that it was indeed Harry, but he had no idea where the boy had disappeared to. He had wanted to speak to Daphne as well, but her parents had been quite reluctant to further upset their daughter. With nowhere else to turn, Albus hoped they would relent, and let him speak to her now. At the very least he hoped to obtain a memory from Lord Greengrass of the attack so he could study it in hopes of better understanding what had happened that day.

Albus knew something was wrong the moment he appeared at Greengrass Manor. He quickly drew his wand and looked around. The grounds were quiet, and nothing moved, but he could feel the after effects of spell fire and violence. He noticed that the grounds were torn up in a few places, and looking at the door he saw that they had been blasted off their hinges. Off to the right side of the door, there looked to be blood splatters up on the windows, and he could discern at least two bodies lying nearby, one by the path, and one just off the front landing, both were wearing familiar black robes, and he could see a shattered white mask next to the closest body.

Moving at a speed that belied his nearly 150 years of age, Albus ran quickly to the front doors and burst inside, wand drawn, with several spells on his lips. He saw two more bodies on the grand staircase leading up to the next floor, both with rather large blood stains surrounding them. Both of them were wearing black robes and white masks. He didn't hesitate, and made his way past the receiving room, and into the entryway proper. Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw another body lying on the floor and turned toward it, and entered into what was obviously Lord Greengrass' study. There his worst fears were confirmed. Lying on the floor were the bodies of Lord and Lady Greengrass and their two daughters. While the mother and the girls didn't look like they had been tortured, it appeared as if Lord Greengrass had put up quite the fight and received several injuries before succumbing to his attackers. Also in the room were two more deatheathers bodies, both having died in the attack.

Albus' wand started shaking slightly as he took in the death and violence before him. It was always a sad day when wizarding blood was spilled and life was lost. It was truly a tragedy when it was that of a child. Albus closed his eyes in sadness and pain. Another family line had been wiped out.

-DCM-

Amelia Bones grimaced and looked down at the coffee cup in her hands. It had gone cold and tasted like tar mixed with dragon dung. She sighed and took another swallow of the vile liquid. Why was it that whenever you had coffee at a crime scene it tasted like the liquid shite she had in her hands. Was it the coffee? Or was it the crime scene? She noticed the flash of cameras and looked up to see Anna Neilson taking pictures of the corpses, or what was left of them. Four of the deatheaters had died in very gruesome ways, the other two died in slightly more conventional ways, but the scene was still confusing. It just didn't add up. Deatheaters always took their dead with them. So why did these get left behind? Were there only six attackers or were there more? If there were more, why did they kill the family and leave the other fellows behind? The scene wasn't adding up. Amelia couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew she was missing something important.

It was obvious what they were after, information. Someone had seen the report Stebbans had written. Both Amelia and Albus had tried to keep the information from getting out, but they had obviously been too late. There were only a handful of people who had the authority and the opportunity to read the report before it had been sealed, and one of them was lying dead in the study now. Theodore Nott Sr. had been stabbed, and then had the front of his head caved in. Which was something else that wasn't adding up, none of the deatheaters had died by magic, they had all died by physical violence.

Amelia sighed again and took another swallow of her tepid coffee. This one was going to be a headache no matter how you looked at it. The death of a very prominent leader and businessman in the wizarding community would be a serious blow to wizarding Britain.

She was brought out of her musings by the familiar step-clunk of someone approaching from behind. She turned and saw Alastor Moody walking up the walkway. He had his wand drawn, and his magical eye was spinning too quickly to follow. Amelia kept her hands in plain sight, well away from her wand. She could tell the scarred man coming towards her was on edge, and that was never a good thing. Especially when that man was Moody. "Speak to me Amy." From anyone else, such a demand would have resulted in a verbal smack down and two weeks patrolling Knockturn Alley, from Moody it got compliance.

"It looks like another deatheater attack. Ten dead, six are the deatheaters, four are the Greengrass family, father, mother and two young daughters. Attacked from the front, and it looks like there were caught by surprise. The family was killed in the study."

"Anyone we know? Besides the Greengrasses?"

Amelia nodded "Theodore Nott, his head was caved in from the front."

"Was Malfoy one of the other bodies?"

"With Nott here, you would expect it, but he wasn't."

"Who found them?"

"Dumbledore. He came to talk the Greengrass daughter about Potter, found them, and sent me a patronus."

Moody was silent as he concentrated on the scene before him, and Amelia waited while he took his initial assessment. It only took a few minutes. "Something isn't right."

"That's the feeling I got as well."

"I'm going to look around." Amelia nodded.

She watched as Moody stepped up to the first deatheater and crouched over the body to get a good look. She turned to where Albus was speaking to Shacklebolt, who was taking his statement. She vanished her coffee cup, and walked over to the men intent on asking Albus about his search for Harry.

"Albus, do you have a minute?"

"If auror Shacklebolt is done speaking with me, then I do indeed have time for you Madam Bones." He was doing his best to appear unfazed, but to someone who had worked with him for years in the Wizengamot, it was easy to tell that he too was shaken by the events of the day. For one his usual grandfatherly smile was missing, and his eyes didn't hold their usual twinkle. Amelia knew he held life as being precious, so she wasn't really surprised by the change in his demeanor.

After auror Shacklebolt had given his assent, and left to check on his partner, Amelia put up a quick privacy ward. "How goes your search for Potter?" She was quick and to the point as always.

Albus seemed to deflate even further, and she knew the news wouldn't be good. "There has been no trace of young Harry. I have talked to everyone I could on the mainland in case he apparated there, but no one has seen or heard of him."

"What of the report that there was snow and ice involved when he disappeared?"

"I must admit that detail has me stumped. I have never heard of ice and snow being involved in apparition, even when someone apparates into a snowstorm. That was in fact, what I had come to speak with Lord Greengrass about today. He was the one who reported that little fact. He is sadly, unavailable for further discussion on the matter."

Amelia nodded in agreement.

"If you have no further questions for me, I had best get back to Hogwarts."

"I believe we have all we need Albus, thank you for your time."

"If you need me or need to discuss anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me."

"Thank you Albus, you was well." Albus moved past Amelia and with a soft pop, was gone.

Amelia sighed again as she cleaned her monocle on robes. Deciding to check with Moody, she walked up to the house and entered through the remnants of the front doors. Bits and pieces of wood littered the floor, and she could see several scorch marks on the walls where spells had impacted. She turned to the right and entered the study to see Moody standing over Lady Greengrass. He was muttering something under his breath while looking down at her. "Moody" she said to let him know she was coming close to him. It was never wise to walk up on Mad-Eye unannounced, auror Jones had spent three days in the hospital from a close range piercing hex when she had done it back while Amelia was a junior auror, and she had taken the lesson to heart, and not followed her example. She stopped a few feet away and looked down on the fallen Lady.

"Melinda and Leslie were best mates growing up. Practically sisters." Amelia remained quiet. She knew better than to say anything during one of the very few times Alastor Moody opened up about his dead daughter or dead wife.

Amelia waited for him to speak again, but he didn't, she pressed him gently. "Anything?"

"A hunch." He said gruffly.

Amelia raised her left eyebrow in inquiry.

"Let me check one more thing, then we'll talk." When he got to the door he turned, he turned and looked at Amelia. "This way apprentice." Amelia knew better than argue that she hadn't been his apprentice in over 30 years. When Moody spoke like that, he was usually onto something, and that something was almost always huge.

They walked back outside in silence and then he lead her down the front path for about 40 meters and then turned back to the house. Amelia stopped and looked at him. He was looking up at the roof of the house, and with a sudden turn and a pop he disappeared. Almost instantly, there was another pop and Amelia turned and saw him standing on the edge of the room looking down. Looking at the spot next to him intently, she too turned and disappeared, only to reappear next to him.

Moody was looking down at the front yard intently. "Do you see it? Over there" he pointed to his left "and over there" he pointed to another spot off to his right. "And the biggest right there in front." He pointed to a large spot almost to the edge of the property, just to the side of the walkway.

Amelia studied the ground for a minute. "Damn! Foot prints. Very large foot prints."

"Put up your strongest privacy ward girl." Amelia didn't even hesitate to follow the order of her once mentor, and put up several wards, including a Bones family special.

"Alright" she said when she was done turning to Moody.

He appeared contemplative, and almost…happy…which was very odd for him.

"You have something." It was a statement, not a question.

"Aye."

Amelia's eyebrow rose again. She knew Alastor had a penchant for the dramatic, especially when it came to teaching his apprentices, such as at this moment.

"Put the pieces together girl."

She knew better than to argue when Moody got in a teaching mode. "Deatheater bodies were left behind, which they never do, all of them were killed by physical means, not magical. There was no sign of violence on the bodies of the family, except Lord Greengrass, who appeared to have been tortured. Then we have three sets of very large foot prints on the front lawn. Did I miss anything?"

"There wasn't any magic residue on the bodies of the family."

"No…wait…what? Then how did they die?"

Moody was smiling a very scary looking smile and looking at her very intently. It only took a moment, but everything clicked and realization struck. "It's a setup, they aren't really dead. Somehow the deatheaters found out about their link to Potter and attacked. The Greengrasses were able to beat them, probably with the help of what ever made those giant foot prints, and rather than go public with the attack, decided it was safer to disappear, letting everyone think they were dead."

"That's my girl." Moody nodded in approval. "Now the question is, what do you do with this information?"

Amelia was quiet for several minutes. There were pros and cons on both sides of the argument, but letting the Greengrass family hide in safety won out. "We help them. We make sure all reports state emphatically that the Greengrass family was killed by deatheaters so anyone looking at the reports will have no reason to suspect they are still alive. We call the Goblins to come lock down the estate and move their valuables to their vault, and we never speak of this again."

"Anything else?" Both of Moody's eyes were focused on Amelia. He had an almost hungry look on his face.

A slow predatory smile graced Amelia's lips. "Yes. I believe it is time to visit Lucius."

-DCM-

Three days. It had been three bloody days and Nott hadn't come to report on the raid. Lucius Malfoy sat in his study staring into the glass of fire whiskey in his hand. He had told his wife to take his son, Draco, and go visit family in southern France. He needed a bit of space to take care of a few things and figure out what to do about those damn Goblins, and having his family underfoot would make things harder.

The key to that was the Potter brat. And the key to the Potter brat appeared to be the Greengrass girl. Which brought him to sitting in his study waiting. He hated waiting. Malfoys weren't meant to wait. Others were meant to wait on Malfoys.

There was a soft pop as a house elf entered the room. "Master? There is a guest waiting to speak with you."

"About bloody time." Lucius looked at the elf vermin with disgust. "Show him in, then iron your hands for being so slow. And you had better do it enough times to properly punish yourself or you will be doing it again."

The elf looked down and nodded sadly. "Yes Master." Then he popped out of the room to do his master's bidding.

Lucius sat imperiously behind his antique mahogany desk. He took a moment to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. It wouldn't do to let Nott see how unsettled he was.

He had just set his face into a look of distain when the door opened, but instead of opening in a civilized manner, it was thrown open and crashed against the wall. Lucius barely had time to register shock on his face when he had to start dodging spells. There were three quick stunners thrown at him, followed by a cutter and a bludgeoning curse. Lucius dropped to the floor quickly and rolled to his left. He drew his wand and tried to point it at his attacker, but had to quickly roll back to the right behind his desk to dodge an unknown purple/grey curse. He then tried to inch his way forward under his desk to try and shoot the legs of his opponent, only to have his wand pulled from his grasp by a disarming hex.

He quickly reached up and pulled out his spare wand that he had sheathed under his desk and dove to the right while firing a bone breaker hex.

'_Reducto, reducto, reducto' _came three quick spells followed by a _'bombardia'. _Pieces of expensive furniture and pages from several books came raining down on the embattled man. Lucius was getting desperate. He wasn't even sure where his attacker was, let alone who. He knew he couldn't apparate or port-key out as the wards around Malfoy manor prevented such travel. He decided his only course of action would be to fire a couple spells to distract his opponent, and jump through the window and make his escape.

He pointed his wand around the ruins of the chair he was hiding behind, and muttered '_confringo'_ then jumped up and ran to the window. He only made it two steps before he was caught with a simple tripping jinx, and then felt someone cast a body binding curse on him.

Alastor Moody looked down on the recently disarmed and bound Lucius lying on the floor in front of him. "Hello Lucy…long time, no see…" he trailed off.

"Moody! I will see you in Azkaban for this attack on the Lord of a Noble house!" Lucius was turning purple with anger at being humiliated by the auror. "I will personally snap your wand at your trial."

"What makes you think you will live that long deatheater?" His wand digging into the neck of the bound man before him. "Besides, I'm just here for a friendly little chat."

Moody released the body bind on Lucius and picked him up by the back of his neck and then helped him to rather forcefully sit in his ruined desk chair. "Now are we going to have a nice friendly chat? Or do we continue having fun?"

Lucius sneered at the man standing over him. "I have nothing to say to you Alastor Moody. See yourself out."

"Wrong answer." Moody reached forward quickly and grabbed Lucius by the hair on the back of his head with his left hand. He then turned to the right and slammed Lucius' face against the top of his desk. Hard. Twice.

Lucius looked extremely stunned as blood started running down his face from an obviously broken nose.

"Ready to talk now?"

"I'll rip…"

"Wrong again…" Lucius' head again was slammed into the top of the desk. This time Moody held it there and pressed his wand to the side of Lucius' head, behind his hear. _'Imobilus'_ Lucius was stuck.

"Now, ready to talk? Or do I have to get mean?"

Lucius wouldn't show it, but he was starting to get nervous. Mad-eye Moody had a reputation for getting answers and getting people to talk and there was no one here to help him…except…

"Dobby!" he called his house elf to protect him. He expected to hear the pop of Dobby arriving, but instead felt pain explode in the side of his head as he was cuffed very hard by Moody.

"Your elf is sleeping off my stunner Lucy. Do you think I am that stupid? Now spill, or do you need a drink?" Moody set a vial of a clear liquid in front of Lucius's eyes causing him to really start panicking. If he was forced to take veritaserum, then he would be completely helpless to the auror's questions and his deepest secrets would be revealed.

"Okay! Okay! I'll talk. Let me up and I'll talk." He felt the spell holding him in place released. He pretended to start sitting up, but instead, reached for his other spare wand that he kept strapped to his lower leg. Before he could get more than an inch of it drawn for the holster, he felt his hand, wand and leg clamped in a vice like grip. Looking down he saw that Moody's wooden claw leg was currently crushing his hand and leg. The grip was very tight, and only getting tighter.

"You didn't think it was just for walking on did you? Or that I didn't know about your third wand? Eh Lucy?" Lucius heard and felt the bones of his right hand break under the pressure followed closely by his wand shattering. He screamed in pain. _'Stupefy'_ Lucius slumped forward onto his desk for a third time.

Moving quickly Moody withdrew a small glass bottle from a pocket deep in his robes. Inside was a very small metallic insect made from gold and set it on the desk next the Lucius' head. He pressed his wand to the spot behind the unconscious man's ear where he had struck him earlier and cast a very low powered cutting curse. Setting his wand down, he picked up the small bottle and opened the lid, and turned it upside down over the bleeding cut. The metallic insect dropped off the side of the bottle and onto the skin beside the cut. It hesitated briefly, then entered the cut and quickly disappeared. Moody removed the bottle and picked his wand up and healed the wound. He then pocketed the bottle and looked around the study. It had been eight minutes since he had arrived. Two minutes to go. He walked over to a low table set in front of one chair, and what was left of a second. He picked up a bottle of fire whiskey from the table and opened the lip. He sniffed the contents and pulled a face.

"Single malt. Pansy…" Thinking quickly, he took another bottle of a clear liquid out of his robe and poured some into the bottle of whiskey and swirled it around. He then recapped it and set it on the self in the liquor cabinet. He then pulled out a random book from the book self and sat down in the remaining chair and opened it to a random page, his eye trained on the door.

It was less than a minute later that he saw other aurors approaching the manor. Soon he heard them moving down the hall, pausing outside the study.

They burst in the room shouting "Don't move! Aurors!"

Moody simply looked up from his book with a bored look on his face. "You're late, the fun's over already."

The aurors stood in the doorway looking at the mess in the study. The broken chairs, the scattered debris and the unconscious, bleeding man with his head on the desk.

"Move aside damn it!" Amelia Bones entered the study. She took one quick look around the room, her eyes finally resting on Moody. "Ah bloody hell!" she cursed. "Everybody out! Search the rest of the house!" She glared at the man in front of her while the rest left quickly to carry out her orders. Once they were gone, her glare softened. She cast a quick privacy ward. "How did it go?"

"Exactly like we thought it would. He resisted, I showed him the error of his ways."

"The bug?"

"Implanted."

"Good. Get me the reports when you have them."

"Are you sure he is guilty Alastor?"

Moody nodded. "Saw it in his eyes when I set the veritaserum in front of him."

It was Amelia's turn to nod. "Officially you're on suspension. I'll let you know how long as soon as I know. Go lay low for a while. Better yet, go on an actual vacation, God knows you've earned it."

Moody didn't say anything, but simply nodded to her again and walked out of the study.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

**AN:** I have had several people mention the similarity of Harry's powers to the movie Frozen. Let me set the record straight, I started writing this story while on my internship in Alaska this last summer, if anything I should be suing Disney for stealing my idea! (Yea right – like that's going to happen). It is true that Harry now has a lock of hair that has turned white, and yes that happened in the movie as well, but the idea is a homage to one of my favorite authors – Tad Williams (head nod to jslee102) and his Green Angel Tower series. Keep in mind too please, that he wasn't the first one to use the idea. I know David Eddings used it. Polgara had a lock of white hair from where Belgarath, her father, touched her head the first time he held her.

We are going to have few small time jumps to Hogwarts. The purpose of these is to give us a glimpse of Hadrian and Daphne growing closer, receiving training, and gaining friends and allies. I didn't want them to just show up to Hogwarts powerful, with an army and carrying weapons of mass sarcasm. I enjoy reading/writing stories where the characters have to struggle and fight for everything.

Please don't worry and fret cannon enthusiasts, many cannon events will still take place and Hadrian will still have to deal with cannon personalities.

Don

'_thoughts and dreams'_

'_**bond speak'**_

-DCM-

_Harry pulled his head back quickly from where he was peeking around the tattered wooden crate. That blonde girl he had first seen a few days ago had been walking down the alley. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself, but this girl had seen him, he was sure of it. How could she have not? They had locked eyes for several seconds. Violet, that was the color of her eyes, such an unusual color…very pretty._

_Harry slowly poked his head around the crate to see if she was still there. "What are you doing?" The voice behind Harry made him and yell out in surprise. He tried to rise, but ended up falling on his backside._

_Harry looked up and saw the blonde girl leaning over the top of the crate looking down at him. She had a mischievous smile on her face and her eyes were dancing with laughter._

"_Ummm…looking…"_

"_Looking at what?" The blonde tilted her head to the side, and continued looking at the boy who was still lying on the ground below._

_The boy looked at her, and slowly, a lop sided, cheeky grin formed on his face. "You. I was looking at you."_

"_Me?" She didn't seem fazed by his response. "Why were you looking at me?"_

_Harry picked himself up off the frozen ground and brushed the snow from his tattered pants. "Because, you have very pretty eyes." He moved over to the crate and hopped up on it and sat down next to the girl. "My name is Harry. What's yours?"_

"_Daphne. My name is Daphne." The boy, Harry, held out his hand and Daphne took it and they shook._

"_It's nice to meet you Daphne."_

"_What are you doing back here?"_

"_This is where I live."_

_Daphne looked at Harry with a confused look. "You live here? What about your family?"_

_A sad, dark look crossed Harry's face for a moment. "My family didn't want me."_

_Daphne's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm sorry Harry…" her response was muted and quite._

"_It's okay, you didn't know."_

_Things were quiet for a moment between the two children before Daphne suddenly perked up. "Are you hungry?"_

"_Ummm, yea…I'm always hungry." Harry was a little confused by the girl's question. Boys were always hungry weren't they?_

"_Let's go to the Leaky Caldron and eat!" She jumped up excitedly and grabbed hold of Harry's hand and started to pull._

"_Wait…I…I don't have any money." Harry looked down at his shoes ashamed of his admission._

"_It's ok silly, I have money! Come on! Tom makes the best fish and chips." Harry felt himself being dragged along behind the blonde whirl wind that was Daphne._

-DCM-

Hadrian woke with a smile on his face. He felt across the bond and knew Daphne was smiling too. Sometimes it was odd to share dreams with someone else, like that time he dreamed of puppies, chocolate bunnies and erk…'_don't think of it…block it from your mind…Breath in, count of six, breath out, count of five.'_

Hadrian spent a few moments practicing the meditation techniques Master Ishito had taught them. He could feel the laughter coming from Daphne. He smiled and got out of bed. After taking care of his morning absolutions he dressed for his morning training with Blade Master Torak, and opened the door to leave his room.

Outside his door there stood an eight foot wall of muscle that was almost as wide as it was tall.

"Good morning Dorvan." Hadrian greeted the Yeti guard. The guard looked down at the young child and made a few grunting noises with a slight tilt to his head to one side.

"I did sleep well, thank you for asking." It had only been eight months since Hadrian had come to live at the citadel, seven since he had gone to rescue Daphne and her family, and he was still trying to learn Yetish. He could understand it passably, but speaking it at this point was out of the question. Daphne understood it much better than he did, and was able to make a few of the grunts and gestures that comprised the language of the Yeti people, but not Hadrian.

He walked up the hall towards the training room Blade Master Torak had set up to train the two, and was joined by Daphne as he passed the room she shared with Astoria when her parents and sister visited. She was also dressed in training clothes, and had her hair pulled up in a ponytail.

'_**Morning Daphne'**_ Hadrian spoke to her with a smile.

'_**Morning Hadrian. Dreaming of me again last night?**_ She didn't look at him, but he could tell she was smiling.

'_**Nope!'**_

'_**No? Really? Then what did you dream about?'**_

'_**Flying'**_

Daphne looked at him in disbelief. It only took a moment until he cracked under her gaze. "Okay, yes I was, you know that. We share dreams all the time." Daphne laughed a light laugh and turned and entered the training room.

Both children stopped inside the door, and took off their slippers, leaving them under a bench that sat along the entry way. They then moved out onto the mat and started stretching.

Hadrian grabbed his right arm and pulled it against his chest with his left. While doing his morning warm-up he thought back over the last seven months since the Greengrass family had been attacked. It had been Cygnus Greengrass' idea that they fake their own deaths. And with the help of Braelik, who made earthen golems in their images, and Goretusk, who coordinated everything with the Goblin nation, their plan had worked perfectly. Lord Goretusk had helped the Greengrass family settle quietly in Sydney Australia, where Cygnus was able to quietly pick back of the reigns of his business. His employees had been sworn to secrecy, and with several new contacts and favors called in by Hadrian's family, business was picking up steadily.

It had been decided that Hadrian and Daphne would spend the first four days of the week at the Heart training with Master Ishito, Blade Master Torak, and taking lessons from Lady Shoshan and Lady Lonel. The other three days of the week, they would spend with the Greengrass family living as a normal family. Well as normal as possible considering they had a hard time going anywhere with three very large and intimidating Yeti guards. This proved cumbersome until Lord Goretusk presented them with a solution. The children both given a pendant to wear. If they were ever in trouble, the merely had to give a pass phrase and the three Yeti guards, who wore similar pendants, would be port-keyed to their location immediately. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it provided Hadrian and the Greengrass family with a sense of security for the children while allowing them to be children for a while yet.

It had also been decided that when it came time to leave for Hogwarts, they would be registered under the names of Hadrian and Daphne Snowlock. Lord Conrak had said again, that he would take care of things with the headmaster when the time came, but for both the children's safety felt it was best they not tell the school or the world who they really were.

Hadrian and Daphne finished their warm up and moved to Resting position. After a moment of deep breathing, they both started moving through the Waking kata together. After they finished, they were greeted by Lord Torak, who had joined them on the mat.

"Good Sunrise to you Hadrian."

"Good Sunrise Blade Master."

"Good Sunrise to you Daphne."

"Good Sunrise Blade Master."

"This morning we will begin learning a new kata. It is known as The Defensive kata. It starts thus…"with that, their morning training began.

-DCM-

Lady Shoshan and Lady Lonel watched from the shadows in the back of the room as the two worked through their morning training.

Lady Lonel turned to her companion, worry clearly etched on her regal features. "How will he do this morning? Is there any indication."

Lady Shoshan smiled a small smile. "You have become quite the mother Lonel, worrying over your child." Lonel rolled her eyes at the evasion. Shoshan's smile merely grew. She then looked over Lonel's shoulder and off into space for several minutes. Lady Lonel quietly and some-what patiently waited for her High Elf sister to finish looking.

"If he tries alone, he will fail. If she joins him, without anyone telling her to, then the path to success will be shown to him."

Lady Lonel was quiet for a moment. "Will he take the path?"

"That I could not see."

The children had finished their morning training and were making their way towards the exit. The bowed off the training mat, and sat on the bench and began putting on their slippers.

"Hadrian, Daphne" Lady Lonel moved out of the shadows and over to the children.

"Good Sunrise mum!" Hadrian dropped his second slipper and hurried over to hug Lady Lonel tightly. She readily returned the hug and was soon joined by Daphne in a small group hug.

"Good Sunrise children!" Lady Shoshan also moved out of the shadows to greet the children.

"Good Sunrise Auntie Shoshan!" Lady Shoshan smiled gently at the name she had been called. Being family did have its perks after all. She smiled again at Lady Lonel and greeted the children in return as she removed her slippers and joined her husband on the training mat for their Wakening kata.

"Hadrian?" Lady Lonel once again got the children's attention. "You have some important visitors here to see you. The Skraeling have sent a small delegation to meet with you. They are a very temperamental race. Sometimes they have been friendly to the Winter Lord, sometimes they have not. We had not expected them to send someone to meet with you so soon, or we would have discussed this during our lessons. As it is, they are here, and we will have to do the best we can."

Hadrian looked a little nervous at the idea of meeting with a race that may or may not be friendly. "Will you and dad be there?"

"We will be in the great hall with you, but as the Winter's Child, you will need to be the one they met with. The will be presented to you at your Alcove. Lord Conrak and I will be at the head of the hall watching and keeping an eye on everything."

"If they don't like me, will they hurt me?"

"No Hadrian. If they don't like you they will simply leave."

"Okay….that's not so bad then. When will I meet with them?"

"After breakfast. So hurry and clean up, and then dress in your finer clothes. The black and emerald robes would be perfect."

"Okay mum." With another hug, the boy dashed off to his rooms to get ready.

Lady Lonel turned and saw Daphne standing in the hall looking up at her. "Mum?" It had surprised and warmed Lonel's heart greatly when Daphne had started calling her mum.

"Yes dear?"

Daphne looked uncertain for a few moments and looked away. "What is it child?"

Daphne straitened her shoulders and looked up "What should I wear?"

A very large and gentle smile grew on Lady Lonel's face. "If I were meeting with possible friends, and had eye's as pretty as yours, I would definitely wear the black dress robes with the violet trim."

Daphne's smile of relief was heartwarming and fun to see. "Okay! Thanks mum!" With a hug, Daphne rushed off to her rooms to get ready as well.

Lady Lonel stared off after the excited young girl for a moment. '_If she joins him, without anyone telling her to, then the path to success will be shown to him.'_ Lady Shoshan's words ran through her mind again and she hoped the girl would stand with her bonded.

-DCM-

Hadrian sat in his Alcove in the Great Hall and tried to not fidget nervously. He ran over the last minute lessons Lady Lonel had given him during breakfast. The Skraeling were a human/spider hybrid. They had the body, thorax and legs of a very large white spider and the upper body, arms and head of a human. They were pale skinned, generally with white hair, and white eyes. They were a matriarchal race, meaning they were ruled by women, and in the past, had only allied with the Winter's Child when the child was female. They were also a very proud and independent race, and thus were easily insulted or offended. On the up side of being touchy, if they did become insulted or offended, they would simply refuse contact. While they did have a warrior class, and were capable of violence, they were not a violent people unless it was in defense of their homes and families.

Hadrian looked around the Great Hall, and saw his father and mother at the head of the hall watching in, what may have appeared as a passive pose, but Hadrian knew his mother was quite ready to act should the situation deem it necessary. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't.

He saw Daphne standing against the back wall looking at him with concern. Their eyes locked and he could feel a surge of emotion across their bond. She was anxious, nervous and she….had to pee. Hadrian's mind went blank for a minute and he looked at her incredulously.

'_**Are you serious?'**_

Daphne shrugged her shoulders and pulled a 'so-what' face. _**'I'm a girl, these things happen, get over it.'**_ Hadrian laughed softly at her snarky response. When he saw her smile at him in return, he felt a great desire to have her standing there with him.

'_With her I can do anything'_ the thought came to his mind and he mentally felt a wintry breeze blow through his mind.

Daphne felt the wintry breeze in her mind as well. She had hoped to help in some small way, but wasn't' sure what she could do beside be in the hall to support him. She glanced at Lord Conrak sitting at the head of the hall, and Lady Lonel standing at his side with her hand on his shoulder. It was then that the idea came to her in a flash. _'He wants me to stand with him, so I will stand with him!'_ She knew the visitors were due to enter the hall any minute so there wasn't any time to hesitate or to wait.

She moved quickly across the hall to Hadrian's alcove and climbed the steps toward him. She saw him smile in relief when she looked at his face and knew she had made the right choice. She quickly stood to the left of Hadrian and put her hand on his shoulder in a show of support.

-DCM-

Lady Lonel let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"I take it that was an event that you were hoping for?" Lord Conrak whispered quietly to his wife.

"Yes it was."

"Anything else you are hoping for?"

"That he follows the path she helps him see."

Lord Conrak looked up at his wife with a knowing look. "Shoshan said something this morning?"

Lady Lonel was about to answer when the doors to the Great Hall were opened and the Skraeling visitors came inside. Instead of answering she merely nodded her head and kept her eyes on the visitors. When she saw who was leading the delegation, she inwardly groaned. It was Anax, Warrior Princess of the Skraeling. As deadly as she was pretty. She had nearly flawless skin, and long white hair that was currently bound by a crystal blue diadem. She wore a silver breast plate and two swords could be seen over her shoulders. She had a reputation of being tough, and lightning fast. On top of that, she was one of the most temperamental beings Lady Lonel had ever met. Things were looking down already, and the meeting hadn't even started.

-DCM-

Anax moved through the double doors at a brisk pace. She wanted to get this meeting over and return to her people quickly. She didn't agree with her mother one bit in meeting with the new Winter's Child. If rumor had it, the child was not only human, but was male! She had had several very bitter arguments with her mother before finally agreeing to come. It had been the threat of being removed as named heir that finally made her relent. She had picked the four strongest male warriors to accompany her and set out at a brutal pace.

They had made very good time, their long nimble legs well adapted to moving quickly across the frozen ice and snow of the mountains. There had only been one problem on their rapid journey. It had happened when they came upon a pack of dire wolves that had just made a kill. Because they were moving so swiftly, they were literally on them before either party knew of the other. While the two races usually exist in an uneasy peace, because of the fresh kill, and the rapid approach of the Skraeling, the dire wolves thought they were being attacked and responded in kind. It was only the quick thinking of one of her male guards, Kastoni, that she hadn't been hurt. He hadn't hesitated but had jumped into the fray, catching two of the giant wolves in mid leap as they went for Anax. Rather than fight, they had made a very hasty retreat and quickly climbed a nearby ice cliff to safety.

No one had been killed, but it had been close. Kastoni had been bitten on one of his legs very badly and one of the wolves had scratched him badly on his face, taking one of his eyes.

Her face didn't show it, but Anax's heart hardened at the thought of Kastoni, and him being hurt. He was a very fine example of a warrior. Swift, deadly, and followed orders completely. He was not the biggest male in the nest, but what he didn't have in size he had in courage and determination. Now he had lost an eye, and was lame in one of his legs. Living in such a harsh and demanding environment meant that only the strongest and healthiest survived. Those that were weak, or hurt, did not and were not given succor, so that those that were still strong could carry on.

Anax knew that the injuries Kastoni had received in defending her were in essence a death sentence. He had given his life so she could live. He would finish his mission, but when they returned to the nest, he would not be allowed in, and would be turned away. The thought of this disturbed Anax deeply for some reason she didn't understand. She ruthlessly shoved these thoughts aside and focused on the meeting before her.

Anax turned to the Winter Alcove on her right and almost stopped moving. She was shocked speechless by what she saw. Not only was the Winter's Child human and male, but the child was….a child! Anax wasn't very familiar with how humans grew, but she knew she would be surprised if this hatchling was over 5 winters old! Was this a joke? Were they making fun of her visit? Her skin started prickling as her agitation grew. She could feel all four of the guards behind her bristle as they too took notice of the little meat sack before them.

Anax stifled a sigh, and decided to just get the meeting over with and return home. What a waste of time and precious energy. What was her mother thinking? Sending her to meet with a child fresh from the egg?

-DCM-

Hadrian watched the Skraeling approach his alcove with what he hoped was an open and friendly face. He kept his hands clasped in his lap, and made sure to sit up straight. He as thankful Daphne was standing beside him and knew it would be much harder if she wasn't.

He saw the visitors hesitate when they saw him. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw the Skraeling in the front frown slightly when she had turned to them. He was certain, that all of them had hesitated before approaching. Yep, the guard in the back on the right was openly frowning at him. They hadn't even started talking and they were already angry at something.

"Greetings and well met Winter's Child. I am Anax, princess of the Skraeling. I bring acknowledgment from the Queen Mother and wish to thank you for seeing me on such short notice." Her tone was flat and had the ring of being practiced.

"Greetings and well met Princess Anax, I welcome you and your party to The Heart and bid you to make yourself welcome. What is it that you come seeking?"

Hadrian saw her briefly glance at his face, then go back to looking over his right shoulder at the wall behind him. He knew then this meeting wasn't going to work. The princess hadn't come to actually talk, she was just here to do a chore, and then leave. _'I wonder what I did wrong.'_

Daphne was busy studying the Skraeling. By now, three of the four guards were openly frowning at Hadrian. He hadn't done anything wrong, and had actually been very polite in his greeting. She could feel his sense of disappointment and failure. She too was wondering what he had done wrong. She went back to studying the visitors before them. The princess was very pretty, but had dismissed them before she had even started talking. The guards with her were just as hostile, and had judged them as lacking as well. Well, at least three of them had. The fourth was standing in the back on the left with his hands at his side, and his face slightly bowed.

Daphne looked at him for a minute. He wasn't standing as strait or as tall as the other guards. In fact he had one of his legs slightly raised, as if keeping some of his weight off of it. What was it about this guard that caught her attention? There was….heat…radiating from him, from his leg. Why was that important? The winter breeze was once again gently blowing in her mind.

'_**Hadrian! Look at the guard in the back on the left. What do you see?'**_

Hadrian frowned and leaned to the left to get a better look at the guard. Anax saw him lean and stopped what she had been saying in mid-sentence with a slightly surprised look on her face. Hadrian couldn't see very well so he leaned further over trying to see the guard better.

Anax bristled even further at the child in front of her. Now he was ignoring her and looking…NO! She had hoped that by putting Kastoni in the back, he wouldn't be noticed, but he had been seen immediately. Anger and shame coursed through her.

Hadrian couldn't take his eyes off the guard. What was it about him? What was the pull? The breeze was back in his mind as well. Everything else around Hadrian faded slowly to the background. He knew that the princess had stopped talking, but he wasn't aware of what she had been saying. He was quite unaware of the look of anger that had come over her when she had realized what he was looking at. So entranced with the warrior he was, that he didn't realize he had stood, and had started to walk towards him. He stopped briefly in front of the first guard, who had not moved out of his way, and was blocking his path.

Hadrian looked up at the guard in front of him. The guard was angry, but he wasn't concerned. He simply wanted the guard to move so he could get by. There was a hiss and a click behind him, and the guard reluctantly moved to the side and Hadrian walked up to the guard in the back.

He stopped in front of the guard and looked up at his face which was still bowed. A surprised looked came over the guards face when the small human came into view. He wasn't sure what was going on. He had been instructed to stay in the back and to try and not be noticed. That was obviously out of the question now.

The child raised his right hand and beckoned the warrior closer. Kastoni wasn't sure of the protocol for such a situation, but felt it best to be polite. He slowly crouched down trying to keep from causing any pain to his hurt leg. He was able to lower himself a couple feet closer to the child, and hoped that it would be enough. The child kept looking at him, and then beckoned him closer still.

With an internal sigh, Kastoni crouched all the way down, his body settling onto the floor, with his legs drawn up. He was now almost face to face with the small hatchling. He watched passively as the boy studied his face intently. He then raised both his hands and put them close to the warriors face.

"May I?" The soft and gentle question surprised the deadly warrior, but after a moment he nodded his assent. He then felt the boy's cold hands pressed to either side of his face.

Hadrian didn't know what had drawn him to the warrior, but he felt compelled to study him closer. He could feel the heat coming for the injuries of the Skraeling, and knew they were serious, but these didn't concern him at the moment. It was something deeper, something more important than his body that he was seeking. Harry closed his eyes '_breath in, count of six, breath out, count of five' open your senses, breath in, count of six, breath out, count of five, feel the brisk wind blow, breath in, count of six, breath out, count of five, open your eyes.'_

Hadrian opened his eyes, and he saw. He then opened his mouth and he spoke, and as he spoke, his hands were slowly covered with frost crystals, the more he spoke, the more crystals appeared, covering both his hands, and then starting on the Skraeling crouched before him.

"Warrior, with heart of ice, slow to anger, quick to act.

Warrior with the will of the glacier, immovable and steady.

The frozen pillar of your honor rises as a beacon to others.

Sacrificing yourself so that others may continue.

The Heart of Winter calls you to be judged."

The cold and bitter wind that had been blowing through Hadrian's mind was now blowing around the Great Hall. Anax and the remaining guards had initially been surprised and angry at the boy who seemed to dismiss them, but their anger had quickly been replaced with surprise and then shock. One of their warriors had been call by the Heart of Winter to be judged! An event that had not happened in several thousand seasons.

Frost crystals had completely covered both the boy and the warrior and only their faint outlines could be seen underneath. Daphne could feel Hadrian and knew he was fine. She didn't know what a judging was, but judging by the sudden anxious and hopeful looks of the Skraeling princess was giving them, it had to be a good thing.

The wind and snow that was flying around the Great Hall slowly reached a fevered pitch, and then suddenly died, leaving flakes of snow slowly settling out of the air. Before everyone in the Hall stood what appeared to be a solid mass of ice crystal that was vaguely in the shape of a small human boy, and a crouching Skraeling. The exterior held for a few seconds, and then slowly started to crack and fracture. The cracks grew and expanded with several loud cracks and pops. Suddenly the entire surface exploded downward, sending pieces of ice skittering across the floor in all directions.

Hadrian still stood before the warrior, and still had his hands on his face. But the warrior was changed.

"Warrior, with heart of ice, the Heart of Winter has judged you.

You have been found in balance, anger balanced with patience,

Courage balanced temperance, Will balanced with compassion.

Quick to give of yourself, thinking of nothing in return.

You are found worthy and named Brumal Hiemal, a Guardian of Winter."

Hadrian slowly lowered his hands while looking at the guardian before him. The guard had a small humble smile on his face, and bowed his head in acknowledgment of the boy. Hadrian noticed briefly that where the guard had had an injured eye, there was now an opaque crystal. This was the thing he saw before his world turned black and he felt himself pass out.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

**AN:** We are now set to experience the time jump. We need to visit a few friends before boarding the Hogwarts Express, and perhaps answer a few questions before jumping back into the action. I do not anticipate replaying all the little details of first year, but will hit the highlights on the way to Hadrian/Daphne ass-kickery.

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

Upon re-reading this chapter, I had to admit that I took the wrong direction with the meeting with Dumbledore and Lord Conrac. I really don't have any excuse, except possibly I was influenced by the fic that I am currently reading, 'Rocking the Boat' by DerLaCroix, that contains a manipulative Dumbledore, and my anger/frustration with that Dumbledore caused me to be quite heavy handed in this chapter. I do want to state that it is not my intent in any way to write an evil Albus story. In fact some of the most poignant stories I have read contain a grandfather figure Albus. That is more what I am writing. Lord Conrac was also very out of character from the regal and poised character I have envisioned. So I have re-written the story to reflect both of those personalities. Though I do reserve the right to bash away at the Weasleys.

**I do have a question, and will post a poll so please go take it, I have a three story arc planned for this story, do you prefer it all in one book, or broken up into three?**

**I have also created a Winter's Child forum if you guys are interested in participating.**

Please don't worry and fret cannon enthusiasts, many cannon events will still take place and Hadrian will still have to deal with cannon personalities.

Don

'_thoughts and dreams'_

'_**bond speak'**_

-DCM-

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his ornate desk deep in thought. It wasn't every day that one had a meeting with a member of the Wyvern Council, let alone with Lord Conrac, the leader of said council. He had had less than a day to catch his breath after the children had left for the year when a letter arrived carried by a wind sprite, asking if he was free for a meeting at 6:00 pm that evening. Upon seeing who the letter was from, Albus had quickly agreed and cleared his calendar for the meeting.

If he were to admit it to himself, Albus would have to say that he was more than a little nervous about the coming meeting. Sure he was used to dealing with world leaders, and had close to 150 years' worth of experience to draw upon when doing so, but this was a being that was rumored to be almost 7000 years old. How did one prepare for a meeting with someone with that vast amount of experience and power? Albus closed his eyes and ran through several calming techniques and tried to order his mind just a little more. He knew he had only a few minutes until the meeting.

Over in the corner of his office, a beautiful red and gold bird sang a few soft notes to help calm his companion. He could feel the tension along their bond, and knew that something had unsettled his human. Fawkes continued to sing softly as he felt the older man's mind settle, and begin to relax.

"Thank you, Fawkes. That helped greatly." Albus smiled gently at his familiar. '_Or am I his familiar?' _ The errant thought once again crossed the headmaster's mind.

At precisely 6:00, a small whirlwind appeared in the headmaster's office. It grew in size and speed until two tall and regal figures stepped out of the disturbance, both appearing unruffled, and unaffected by the wind. Albus quickly realized that not only had Lord Conrac come to his meeting, but his wife Lady Lonel, was there also. He rose quickly to his feet to greet his guests.

"Lord Conrac, Lady Lonel, please be welcome to Hogwarts. Please have a seat. "He indicated to two chairs that surrounded a low table to one side of his office. He knew it wouldn't be proper to hold a meeting such as this while he sat behind his desk, and making his guests sit on the other side like a couple errant school children. "May I offer you some refreshment? Tea and scones perhaps?" Though a little nervous, Albus knew any situation could be made better by showing respect and being polite.

"Thank you for having us Headmaster, tea sounds very good thank you." Lord Conrac and Lady Lonel moved towards the chairs while Albus called for a house elf to serve some tea.

Just as Lady Lonel went to sit down, there was a bright trill of joy from the phoenix in the corner followed by a delighted laugh. The phoenix launched itself off its perch and landed quickly in the arms of Lady Lonel. "Is there where you have been hiding Brightwing?" She spoke to the phoenix while stroking his head.

Albus tried to hide his surprise, but was unable to do so. He knew phoenixes were near immortal, but it had not occurred to him that his phoenix knew the Lord and Lady of the Wyvern Council, but in retrospect, it shouldn't have surprised him. What did surprise him even more though, was when Lady Lonel began speaking back to Fawkes with chirps and whistles. Now that was something he never would have guessed. Being able to learn the language of a phoenix and be able to speak it.

After a few minutes of conversation, Lady Lonel turned again to the headmaster. "I apologize headmaster, Brightwing and I are old friends, and have had more than a few adventures together. He has asked to join in our discussion this evening. Would that be acceptable?"

"Of course my Lady. He is more than welcome to join us." The three sat themselves in the chairs with the phoenix perched on the low table between them.

After the tea had been served and they were all able to get comfortable, Lord Conrac spoke "I'm sure you are wondering why we asked for this meeting with you Headmaster. And to be honest, the explanation, while long, will most likely answer several questions and perhaps solve a mystery or two that have been plaguing you for the last couple years."

"I must confess to being very surprised, and more than a little delighted to receive your missive Lord Conrac. If your explanation is long, then please know that I am more than willing to give you all the time you need."

Lord Conrac nodded his head in appreciation to the Headmaster. "Before we begin, I have a small favor to ask. Most of what we need to discuss with you tonight is very sensitive in nature. I'm afraid I must ask of you an oath that what we discuss tonight will not be shared with anyone else, with the exception of those we give permission to you to share with. Is that acceptable?"

Albus was again surprised by the events taking place, but understood that sometimes knowledge needed to be kept close and guarded. "Absolutely, if you require an oath, then I shall freely give it." He then withdrew his wand from his sleeve, and gave his oath to keep the secrets he was to be given.

"Thank you headmaster. Let me begin by asking you a question? How much do you know about the Wyvern Council? Specifically, how much do you know about how new members to the council are chosen?"

Albus thought for a few moments. "I know that there are in fact, two councils. The Wyvern Council, of which you are a part of, and the Wurm Council. One representing the light, and the other the dark, both councils the opposite of the other. The Wyvern Council strives for balance in all things, and the Wurm Council strives to upset this balance." Albus looked to Lord Conrac for conformation of this information and received a slow nod in return.

"As for how a new member is chosen, that I do not know. I do not believe a new member has been chosen for a very long time."

"That is correct headmaster. One has not been chosen for almost eighteen hundred years. Let me give you a bit of a short history lesson before we go any further." Lord Conrac paused, and looked down briefly as if to gather his thoughts. Lady Lonel reached over and took his arm in support. "I apologize. You would think that after a millennium, this would get easier to talk about. But it seems it hasn't." Albus waited patiently for the Lord to continue. "Almost a thousand years ago, Lord Thorim, who bore the Winter's Mantle, was betrayed by one of his retainers, and Thorim and his beautiful wife were slain by the Wurm Clarisa. With the help of this retainer, who was a human wizard, the Winter Mantle was stolen by Clarisa, and she went into hiding with the wizard."

Lord Conrac paused again and gathered his thoughts. "Since that time, there have been seven different Winter's Children that were born with the ability to take up the mantle. All seven of them were either found and killed by the Wurm Council, or failed to pass the testing on their journey to the Citadel."

"So the Wurm Clarisa, still holds the Winter Mantle?"

"To an extent yes. She holds the mantle, but due to the nature of the balance, she is mostly unable to do anything with it. The more she tried, the more it slowly robbed her of her sanity. Finally, in an act of desperation, the betrayer put her into a long and deep sleep while her mind adjusted to holding the mantle. She was supposed to awaken after a century, but she did not. No one knows where she is, and why she is still asleep, but when she is found, the new Winter's Child will have to confront her, and take the mantle from her in order to take his rightful place on the Wyvern Council."

"I see." Albus' eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. "It seems any Winter's Child will have a very large task set before him from the beginning."

"Indeed. Which brings us to our reason for being here tonight. You see, just under five years ago, a new Winter's Child was chosen, and began his journey. Through tenacity, determination and more than a little luck, the child was able to complete his journey and made it to the citadel."

"That is good news then? This young man, or woman, must be very strong, especially if chosen to bear the Mantle of Winter."

"Very strong, yes, he is. The problem is that the new Winter's Child, was, and to a great extent, still is just that. A Child."

"A child?" Albus was confused, but somewhere pieces were starting to fall into place, and a small suspicion occurred to him.

"Yes. A seven year old boy, with messy black hair, and brilliant green eyes, appeared at the monastery in an explosion of snow and ice." Lady Lonel spoke for the first time since their discussion began. "Then against all the odds, he made it to the Citadel. It was close, and we almost lost him at the end, but he made it."

Realization dawned on the headmaster. The child they were speaking about was none other than Harry Potter! No wonder he couldn't find the boy, he was with the Wyvern Council! Him being the Winter's Child certainly answered the riddle as to the snow and ice that was present when the boy disappeared.

"The new Winter's Child is Harry Potter!" Albus spoke out loud. He breathed out a long sigh as much of the stress of the last five years was suddenly lifted from his aged shoulders.

"Indeed, the new Winter's Child is Harry Potter. Though he has taken a new name upon himself, that of Hadrian Snowlock."

"A new name?"

"Yes" explained Lady Lonel. "We each received a new name when we joined the family. It symbolizes leaving your old life behind, and starting a new life. Though to be honest, we each continued to have ties to our old lives for years to come. In fact, I believe Lord Goretusk and Lady Shalerock are still quite involved with their Goblin kin."

"As are Lady Shoshan, and Lord Torak." Lord Conrac agreed with her. He turned to the headmaster again. "So to come to the heart of the matter. While Hadrian is the Winter's Child and has been receiving training from other members of the Council, he is also a wizard. Lady Lonel has some talent as a witch, but not nearly enough to teach him all that he needs to learn. Both he and his bonded, who is a witch, will need a magical education."

"Bonded?"

"Ah yes, forgive me. When Hadrian completed his journey, we learned that he had already made a close friend, and they had started bonding at a very early age."

Again the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. "Daphne Greengrass!" There was another pause, as more of the puzzle that was Harry Potter fell into place. "If Daphne is alive, then does that mean her family is also alive?"

"Your reputation of being able to solve puzzles seems to have been well earned headmaster. The Greengrass family is indeed alive and doing quite well. They are currently living in Sydney, and have also become quite attached to young Hadrian. In an attempt to give him at least a semblance of a childhood, he and Daphne have been spending four days a week at the Citadel training and taking classes from their aunts and uncles, and three days a week with the Greengrass family in Sydney being a normal family."

More weight seemed to leave the shoulders of the headmaster, and he found that he had tears in his eyes. "That is wonderful news to me." Albus took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "One of the greatest mistakes I have made in my life was concerning Harry when he was a child. To learn he has grown up being loved and loving in return brings more than just a little piece to my soul."

Lady Lonel also had tears in her eyes. It was easy to see that the learned man before them cared deeply for Hadrian. She knew then that confiding in him had been the right choice. "He has in deed. He has come to call myself and Lord Conrac mum and dad, and I believe the same can be said of Cygnus and Melinda Greengrass. In fact, each of us on the council, and several individuals outside of the council have become very close to Hadrian in one way or another. To have a new member and his bonded among us while they are so young, has given each of us no small measure of happiness. Something that is not very well known is that due to the nature of the Wyvern mantles, none of the Wyvern may have any offspring. So having Hadrian and Daphne with us has partly filled that hole in our hearts."

"They have indeed." Lord Conrac looked away from his wife, and back at the headmaster once again. "Which brings us to the heart of the matter. Hadrian and Daphne both need a magical education, and both desire to attend the school where their parents attended. But they both need special consideration and protection due to Hadrian being the Winter's Child, and Daphne being his bonded. I realize that having them attend here will cause some hardship on the school, and very well may add some risk to the other students. All of us on the Council are more than willing and able to help alleviate these issues, and are in fact willing to make concessions and contributions to Hogwarts to help offset any problems caused by having Hadrian and Daphne attend."

Albus was deep in thought for several minutes. He could see many problems that could and most likely would arise with their attendance, but with their combined efforts, he didn't think there was anything that couldn't be overcome. He glanced down at the table where Fawkes was sitting watching him intently. He turned again to Lord Conrac and Lady Lonel.

"I'm quite sure that by working together, we can overcome any obstacles, while at the same time ensuring the safety of everyone."

-DCM-

"Draco, come here." Lucius was in a no nonsense mood, and wanted to finish the next few steps of his plan and further along his comeback. Ever since his unsuccessful attempt at seizing the Potter fortune, things had gone down him for him fast. He was no longer able to make the bribes he had been making, so he lost favor in the government and in the Wizengamot. It seemed that in the following weeks he became somewhat of a pariah. Old business contacts were suddenly reluctant to do business with him, and several members of his political party had defected to the more neutral party lead by Madam Longbottom.

The lowest point of this whole mess had been when Lord Parkinson had told him that he was canceling the betrothal contract between Draco and Pansy. Not that Lucius was really upset, the girl was an ugly little pug, and Draco was actually happy when he found out, it seems he couldn't stand the wretched girl. Lucius currently had his sights on the Chang girl for Draco, and while Ambassador Chang wasn't open to a contract at the moment, once his plans for the Potter brat came through, he would be in a much better position to negotiate.

"Yes father?"

"Do you have everything packed for your trip to school tomorrow?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Good. Now tell me what your instructions are while you are on the train.

"I am to find Harry Potter, and give the port-key to him, that will bring him to you, so that he can be educated in being a proper wizard." Draco stuck his nose in the air.

"Good. Crabbe and Goyle will provide you with some muscle as back up, but don't rely on them too heavily, they are as witless as their fathers. Is that understood?"

"Yes Father."

"Good. Here is some spending money." We withdrew a small money bag and handed it to his son. "I realize you can't go into Hogsmead yet, but there will be older students that I am sure you can get to do your bidding, you are a Malfoy after all."

"Of course Father."

"If anyone gives you any problems, be sure to let me know, and I will see that it is taken care of."

"Thank you father."

With that the boy left his father's study and Lucius went back to plotting his continued rise to power.

-DCM-

Amelia Bones sat behind her desk finishing up the last few bits of paper work that needed to be done so that she could go home and spend the evening with her niece Susan. She had made arrangements to drop Susan and her friend Hannah Abbot off at the station in the morning. If she were forced to admit the truth, dropping her niece off at the station wasn't the only reason she wanted to be there tomorrow. In fact, her purpose was three-fold. Firstly was dropping off her niece, second, was incase Harry Potter showed up and there was a circus. Especially if Lucius Malfoy tried anything. Both Lucius and Albus were claiming guardianship of Harry, and if there was a problem she wanted to be on hand. The fact that she had six of her most trusted aurors and Alastor Moody scheduled to be there as well, was just for back up. Lastly, there were some pretty serious rumors going round about a foreign Lord that was going to be attending. This Lord was bringing his own guards, and Amelia wanted to be there to make sure no one did anything stupid. With both her and Mad-Eye making an appearance, anything untoward would most likely be avoided.

There was a knock at her door that got Amelia's attention. Amelia glanced at her foe glass and made sure it wasn't anyone set to do her harm.

"Come"

Alastor Moody opened the door and made his way inside. "Alastor. Please sit, care for some tea?" Amelia went to pour some tea for the two.

"No thanks lass, I'm just here to go over the plan for in the morning one more time."

They spent a few minutes discussing logistics and the placement of the aurors. Moody had agreed to having two of the aurors under invisibility cloaks, and the other four and himself out in the open. After a few moments they came to the heart of the plans for in the morning.

"Any word on if Harry Potter is going to show up in the morning Amelia?"

She shook her head. "None at all. I don't know if Dumbledore has found him yet, and is keeping it very quiet, but if Malfoy had found him, our bug would have told us, and he would be crowing it from the roof tops." Moody nodded in agreement. Those two were always going the rounds in the Wizengamot over the guardianship of Harry. So far Dumbledore was winning, and held custody, but if Malfoy got a hold of the boy, then that could change quickly. "Speaking of our bug, what is the latest report?"

Moody reached into his pocket and pulled out some parchment and looked at it. "He's given his boy, Draco, a port-key, and told him to grab Potter and get him to daddy so he can be properly 'educated'"

Amelia sighed. "Starting the boy on kidnapping early isn't he? Well, we better ward the train against port-keys just in case. Can you send auror Cotton to do that in the morning?"

"You bet, I'll double check 'em after he is done. Cotton is a damn good warder, but it pays to be constantly vigilant." He put the parchment back into his pocket. It wouldn't do to have anyone else see it.

"Any word from Lord Greengrass on whether or not his daughter is coming?" Moody had taken some of his 'vacation' and tracked down the presumed dead Lord, and given him an oath that only Moody and Amelia knew they were still alive, and gave him assurances it would stay that way. Moody had even gone so far as to offer to help The Greengrass family if they needed anything, or needed a contact in England.

"Cygnus let me know that other arrangements had been made for his daughter's education."

Amelia nodded, she was happy they had been able to make a life for themselves overseas. She did miss Lord Greengrass in the Wizengamot. He was a force to be reckoned with when he chose to be. Because their views were very similar, they were often on the same side of issues that came before the group.

"Is there anything else Alastor?"

"No, that's about it. Get home and spend the evening with Susie, you'll miss her when she is gone."

Amelia didn't respond, she knew he was speaking from experience. Instead she nodded again, and moved to pack up her desk, and leave for the day.

"Have a good evening Amelia."

"You too Alastor, you too."


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am just playing in the sandbox of my imagination for a few minutes. I leave ownership and all the stress related to it to J.K. Rowling.

**AN:** We are now headed to Hogwarts and all the adventures there. Some events will play out similar to cannon, others will be added, and some others will be dropped.

**I do have a question, and will post a poll so please go take it, I have a three story arc planned for this story, do you prefer it all in one book, or broken up into three? Please take the time to participate in the poll on my profile.**

**I have also created a Winter's Child forum if you guys are interested in participating. The only current question is what to do with Ginny during second year. At this point the prevailing opinion is to make her a friend (though the poll says otherwise…). Feel free to post new discussions, I would enjoy any discussion and will participate in anything posted. Though I ask you to keep it clean. Here is a link to the forum: ** myforums/MartinDC/5560319/

Feel free to PM me about most anything. I enjoy interacting with my readers, and have often replied to the messages sent to me. I can't promise I will respond to all of them, but I will respond if I can.

***For the record, when I picture Lord Conrac, I picture Sean Connery and how he looked in Hunt for Red October. Just wanted to throw that out there***

At the request of a reviewer I have had the chance to have a couple discussions with, this chapter will be a long one that will include the train ride and the sorting! Enjoy the fun, and as always, please leave me a review.

Don

'_thoughts and dreams'_

'_**bond speak'**_

-DCM-

Susan Bones and her friend Hannah Abbot made their way towards platform 9 ¾ while pushing a trolley together. Susan was a short and pretty girl with strawberry blonde hair, dimples and an infectious smile. Though she had had a tragic start to her life, she had been raised in a loving and caring home by her Aunt Amelia. She had had to spend a large amount of time at the Abbot's home due to her Aunt working, but this had been as much a blessing as anything, as she had grown quite close to the Abbot family and called Hannah's parents Aunt and Uncle.

Hannah was a good head taller than Susan and had honey blonde hair. She had a shy smile and generally let Susan take the lead in their adventures. This arrangement work very well for the girls as Hannah kept Susan from doing anything too wild and crazy, and Susan kept Hannah from retreating from the world and hiding.

"Run quickly at the wall and close your eyes if you need to." Amelia instructed the girls. "I promise you won't crash."

"Okay, Aunt Amelia!" Susan started pushing the trolley with gusto and moved quickly towards the wall, leaving Hannah standing still.

"Hey! Wait up Suzie!" Hannah rushed after her friend and quickly caught up to her. Together they made it to the wall and disappeared to the other side.

With a small smile and a slight shake of her head Amelia followed after the pre-teens. When she got to the other side, she saw that the platform was almost deserted. A quick glance around showed her that her aurors were in place, and though she couldn't see Jacobs and Robards, she knew that they would also be in position, especially if Alastor was involved. She saw the grizzled auror walking along the train, near the end, with another auror, Jones by the look of it, both had their wands out and were busy casting wards.

The girls had stopped and were ogling the train. The Hogwarts Express was almost a legend in the wizarding community. Generations of students had ridden the train to Hogwarts, and had passed on stories to their siblings and children. The engine was a bright cherry red, and was puffing smoke from its stacks gently. There were several carriage cars hooked to the engine for the students to ride in and the last car was a baggage car that could be used to store the trunks and possessions of the students if they chose. In the middle of the train, one of the carriage cars looked to have some changes made to it. It now possessed a door in the middle, which allowed entry directly into one of the compartments. Amelia pondered it briefly '_hmm, that's new…'_

Amelia was pulled from her musing by the 'thump-step' of Alastor making his way towards her.

"Uncle Moody!" Susan had noticed the auror and waved to him in greeting.

"Mornin lass! Ready for school?" Amelia was always amazed at how gentle Alastor could be when interacting with children. He was ruthless, cold, efficient, and brutal when dealing with opponents, and had a tendency to be a one man demolition crew when dispensing 'justice', but when dealing with young children, he was almost always warm and loving.

After speaking with the girls for a moment, Moody turned to Amelia. "We put up several wards on the train. Anti-apparition, anti-portkey, and a few monitoring charms that will let us keep an eye on things, and will tell us if anything happens. Jones also cast some locator charms to help pin-point the train if we need to get to her quickly." His report to quick and concise. Amelia liked that about Moody's reports. He never beat around the bush.

"Thank you Alastor. Be sure to pass on my gratitude to auror Jones for his help in warding the train."

"I'll be sure to do that Amelia." Moody took his leave and returned to watching the platform for trouble, his magical eye spinning constantly.

Amelia helped the girls store their trunks in a compartment, and then they stepped back off the train, to wait for their other friends. She wondered when the foreign Lord would be arriving. She hoped it wouldn't be right in the middle of the rush, thus causing a big scene. There were several rumors circulating around about who the young Lord was. Everything from the lost scion of a noble family, to the ridiculous rumor that he was the heir of Merlin. Amelia took a deep breath and looked around the platform again wondering how long she would have to wait, while Susan and Hannah stood nearby talking in hushed whispers.

She didn't have to wait long, as there was soon a buildup of magic over by the apparition point. She could see a whirlwind appear that was slowly building in size and intensity. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her aurors move into position surrounding the disturbance. She quickly stepped in front of Susan and Hannah, and felt Moody step up beside her to help her cover the girls if there was a need. She reached into her sleeve and took ahold of her wand but didn't draw. There was no need to start something if the wind turned out to be nothing. She didn't need to look at the other aurors to know they had all most likely palmed their wands for quicker access.

After a brief buildup of magic, four people, and three very large creatures stepped out of the whirlwind and walked forward, unaffected and unruffled by the wind. The two adults were both tall, and regal in bearing, and walked forward a few steps and turned to the children. In a flash Amelia realized who she was looking at. "Merlin have mercy! Is that…" her thoughts trailed off.

"Aye, it is." Moody didn't need to finish the thought. "This year at Hogwarts just got interesting. If I'm not mistaken, the Wyvern Council is sending their new member to Hogwarts." Word of a new member to the council had spread quickly, though details of the said member were few. "I'll be over by the entrance keepin an eye on things if you need me Amelia."

"Thank you Alastor." Amelia was more than a little distracted, but Moody wasn't surprised by this, and chuckled softly as he walked off.

-DCM-

As soon as they had arrived on the platform, Borash glanced at Amnock and Dorvan, giving them silent instructions. The three Yetis quickly turned and took stock off where they were, and any others who were on the platform. Dorvan made a low guttural sound pointing out that there were five visible wizards present that appeared to be guards, and two that were under a concealing cloak of some kind. Amnock quickly agreed with the assessment and noted that they were alert, but not standing in an aggressive manner. Borash made a small gesture with two of his fingers extended, instructing them to stand ready, but relaxed, then he turned and nodded silently to Lord Conrac, and stood relaxed but alert himself.

Lord Conrac nodded slightly to Borash acknowledging the quick assessment and report. Borash were always efficient and accurate. Having them accompany Hadrian and Daphne to school eased many of the worries Lady Lonel was feeling. He was himself a little worried, but tried not to admit it. He turned back to the two children with a loving smile on his face and warmth in his eyes. He looked the children over. Hadrian had a smile on his face and was petting his familiar, a 3' tall bi-morph Vaylish. He had named it 'Bob', and it was currently perched on his shoulder while in its lesser form that resembled a very small spider monkey.

Daphne was standing beside him and had her right hand holding Hadrian's left arm. The two had grown very close over the last five years together. And Lady Lonel and Lady Greengrass had even discussed, on occasion, wedding plans for when the children were of age. Daphne currently had several Ice Sprites in her hair, their sparkling wings glowing in the sunlight. The tallest of which was only 3/4' tall, and lovingly named 'Tink'. Lord Conrac thought this a fitting name, and welcomed the addition of the half dozen sprites who had attached themselves to the girl when they had returned from the mating ceremony between Princess Anax, and Guardian Kastoni last year. He knew that the sprites were normally friendly and mischievous, but if you angered them, they were quite fierce. One sprite wasn't much of a problem, but the half a dozen that had attached themselves to Daphne, if they were taken together, could cause some very serious problems for anyone bothering the girl.

Lady Lonel pulled Daphne aside for a last minute talk. Lord Conrac assumed it was girl talk related, and decided he didn't want to know. Women were amazing creatures, and he dearly loved his wife, but there were some things men just weren't meant to know or understand. He turned to Hadrian.

"Ready son?" The boy looked up at his adopted father with excitement in his eyes.

"I am." Hadrian paused for a moment, something clearly on his mind. "Dad? Are you sure going to Hogwarts is the right choice? There are other schools that we could attend, some closer to home, some that offer more updated classes. Did we make the right decision?"

Lord Conrac pondered how to answer the boy for a moment, then finally answered. "I believe Hogwarts was the right choice. While the curriculum is more traditional, they do have some of the best teachers in those fields. Not all of the teachers mind you, but many of them. Headmaster Dumbledore is also one of the most powerful human wizards alive, and Hogwarts itself sits at the juncture of three ley lines. Those two reasons right there make Hogwarts one of the safest schools in the world. It's not perfect, and it needed some upgrading this summer to plug some of the holes, but it is much better than it was."

He could tell that his words were giving Hadrian the assurance he needed, and continued. "Hogwarts was also the school that your birth parents attended, and while they may have passed into the next life, this is a way for you to get to know them just a little bit more." Lord Conrac could see an old pain in the boy's eyes that had not quite healed, and hoped that given enough time, Hadrian could come to peace with the deaths of parents.

"You will also have Borash, Amnock and Dorvan with you the whole time, and have been given permission to keep your familiars with you at all times."

"What if Daphne and I are sorted into different houses? Will we still see each other as much?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore assured me that the sorting process would most likely put the two of you together in the same house. He also told me that whatever house you are in will have Lord's quarters for you and Daphne to share. The quarters will be modified to accommodate the Yetis, and they will have their own room, and there will also be a training room attached so that you may continue doing your morning katas and exercises."

"How will they get around the castle, the Yeti? They are quite a bit bigger than humans. They won't fit through the doors."

"The charms master at Hogwarts, Professor Flitwick, has developed some very advanced charms and cast them on a ring for each of the Yeti, that will allow the castle to 'stretch' for them when they need it. He tied it to the existing wards with the Headmaster's help. Besides, Goretusk modified your medallions so you can summon each Yeti individually if you need them. Does that help you feel better?"

Hadrian smiled and nodded. "Yes is does, thank you dad." Hadrian moved forward and hugged his father tightly. Lord Conrac hugged him back and patted his back gently.

"Go and have fun, study hard, and be sure to write your mother, otherwise she will worry."

"I will dad, I promise."

"Good, let's see if the girls are done talking yet." They broke their hug and turned to see Lady Lonel and Daphne still talking.

"If you have any more questions be sure to ask the school nurse. These changes can be confusing and embarrassing, but don't feel like you are alone. If nothing else, send a sprite to me, and I will give you any help you need, okay dear?"

Daphne was looking more relieved as their talk went on. "Yes mum. Thank you!"

"You're more than welcome sweetheart. Now do you have your knives?"

"Yes mum."

"What did Princess Anax tell you when she gave them to you?"

"That no lady of quality ever went without her knives" Daphne paused "even when mating…" Daphne blushed and Lady Lonel laughed a gentle laugh at the Skraeling Princess's advice.

"Well, we'll talk about that bit in a few years." Lady Lonel was going to make sure Melinda was there for that talk, and quickly moved on. "Make sure you and Hadrian keep your contacts in at all times dear. I know you don't like the way they feel and the way they change the color of your eyes, but it will help, more than you think, to hide your identities."

"Yes mum." Daphne didn't look to happy about wearing the contacts, but understood why it was necessary.

"It looks as if Lord Conrac and Hadrian are done talking, let's not keep them waiting.

Daphne moved to Lord Conrac and wrapped him in a tight hug which was easily returned. "Take care snowflake."

"I will papa…"

Hadrian had also moved to hug his mum tightly. "I will miss you mum."

"I will miss you too son. Just remember we are only a moment away if you truly need us. Always carry the summoning rod your father gave you and we will come running if you use it. Just make sure it is a true emergency, and not because you got in trouble for not eating your vegetables." She gave the boy a stern look.

"I will mum, I promise."

"Good. Remember to take extra care of Daphne, and let her know you care."

"That part's easy, I just do whatever she tells me to do and she's happy…" Hadrian had a cheeky smile on his face.

Lady Lonel blinked in surprise for a moment. "Did your dad teach you that?"

Hadrian paused "umm….no?"

Lady Lonel swatted him playfully on the shoulder "liar."

Hadrian smiled wider and moved quickly out of reach before he could be hit again.

-DCM-

Hermione Granger had said goodbye to her parents just outside of platform 9 3/4. As muggles, they wouldn't be unable to enter the platform, and had to say goodbye to their young daughter before she entered. She had put her book heavy trunk on a trolley, and moved quickly forward. Right as she reached the wall she closed her eyes like Professor McGonagall had suggested. It was because her eyes were closed, that she didn't realize she had passed the wall until she was rather suddenly stopped on the other side because she had run into something.

She wasn't able to stop her body from its continued forward momentum and felt herself crash into her trolley and fall backwards onto the floor with a hard bump. When she looked around to see what she had run into, she saw she had hit a pillar that was just on the other side of the entrance. A large, white pillar…a large white furry pillar…. Hermione's eyes traveled up the pillar and came to realize very quickly that it wasn't a pillar she had run into. Her eyes widened when she finished looking up and saw a very menacing face with large off-white tusks and piercing black eyes looking down at her.

She was about to panic and scream when another face entered her sight. It was that of a boy with should length raven-black hair. His hair had a pale white lock of hair that started on the right side of his forehead, just above a scar that was shaped like and eight pointed star, and colored cobalt blue. It was a blue that matched his cobalt blue eyes perfectly. Hermione was shocked speechless for a brief moment by the mischief in his eyes as he looked down on her.

Just as she opened her mouth to berate him for being inconsiderate, another face came into view. This one of a blonde hair beauty who also had the same white lock of hair, cobalt blue scar and eyes. This girl also had several spots in her hair that seemed to be sparkling. Hermione was once again struck speechless by what she saw, and didn't know what to say.

"Are you ok?" The boy was speaking to her, and she turned and looked at him again. "Let me help you up." He held out his hand which Hermione hesitantly took, and helped her to stand up. "You have to watch out for the Yeti, they make better walls than doors. Especially Dorvan here. Very solid wall, terrible door."

The yeti in question merely looked at the boy, twitched one eyebrow and grunted a few times. The boy and girl both looked at the Yeti and then laughed a little. Hermione was confused until the girl turned back to her and spoke. "Dorvan says that doors are made to be moved, and Yeti are not."

"I see…" truthfully she didn't.

The boy held out his hand "I'm Hadrian Snowlock, and this is young lady here is Daphne Snowlock. This wall of meat here is Dorvan, that one over there" He pointed at another Yeti that was taller but not as wide through the chest, "is Amnock. And over there is Borash." He pointed to the largest and most imposing Yeti. Seeing the look on the girls face, Hadrian could tell she was still quite nervous about being so close to the very large guards.

"Don't worry, they look mean and scary, but really they are quite cute and cuddly when you get to know them. Quite like kittens. In fact, Dorvan here wouldn't hurt a fly." The boy, Hadrian, paused looking thoughtful. "He might eat a fly…" his eyebrows furled in thought, "or a kitten for that matter…"

The Yeti made a distinct grunt and gestured with his left hand toward his teeth.

"What did he say?" Hermione's curiosity got the best of her.

Hadrian sighed and turned back to Hermione. "He says he doesn't like eating kittens, they get stuck in his teeth…"

Daphne rolled her eyes at their antics. She held her hand out to the girl. "I'm Daphne Snowlock."

"Hermione Granger, please to meet you." She looked between Hadrian and the Yeti. "Are they always like this?"

"Usually. Though this is pretty tame compared to some of the trouble they have caused. Would you like to sit with us on the train Hermione?"

Hermione had been more than a little nervous about meeting other witches and wizards and also about making new friends. She had always been more than a bit of a bookworm, had bushy brown hair, and her front teeth were just a little too large, though she hoped to grow into them soon. She had been shunned by others growing up because she could be blunt and just a bit pushy, bordering on bossy, so the offer to sit with the first two other children she had met was more than just a little of a relief to the nervous young witch.

"I would love too!"

Daphne's smile was wide and sincere. And she took hold of the girls arm and started leading he over to the train.

"What about my trunk? Should we bring it with us? Will someone else get it?" Hermione looked a little nervous at the thought of losing it.

"Dorvan? Will you please get Hermione's trunk and put it in the carriage?"

The Yeti didn't say anything, but simply picked up the trunk in one of his massive hands, and moved towards the carriage that had its own outside door. He disappeared inside briefly with it, and returned quickly, taking up a position just to the side of the entrance.

Hermione couldn't help the questions from coming out no matter how hard she tried. "So are they your servants? Or are they more like guards. Is that a sword the biggest one has strapped to his back? Why does this carriage have its own entrance when the others don't?" The questions came spilling out almost nonstop.

Daphne smiled at her new friend and tried to answer as best as she could. "The Yeti aren't servants at all, but they do occasionally help when we need it. You could call guards and be mostly correct, but they are more than just guards. They are our friends, and are considered to be a part of our extended family."

"You have family that isn't human?"

"Why would I limit my loved ones because they aren't human? Amnock has saved my life once already, and I would give mine to save his in return. Borash and Hadrian consider each other battle brothers as they have stood together in battle, and saved each other's lives, and Dorvan really is just a giant cuddly kitten underneath his claws and tusks."

Hermione tried to assimilate all this new information, but herself from asking too many questions that might drive off her new friend.

"Let's go get seated inside, there are a couple other girls I met a few minutes ago that I invited to sit with me as well. Their names are Susan and Hannah. Both of them seem very nice."

"What about your brother, Hadrian?"

Daphne smiled "I'm sure he and Borash are getting into trouble somewhere, and will join us soon." She reached up and took ahold of the railing and stepped inside the car. The two girls joined two other girls inside and sat down in some comfortable seats around a low table. "Oh, before I forget, Hadrian isn't my brother."

"He's not?"

"No, he's my betrothed, and my bond mate."

Hermione's brain couldn't take any more surprises and went blank. "Betrothed? Bond mate?"

Daphne saw the confusion in the girl's eyes and figured she better get comfortable as she explained.

-DCM-

"Gran? I've lost Trevor again…"

Augusta Longbottom sighed an exasperated sigh. Her grandson could be so careless at times. Granted he could be sweet and caring as well, but when he was nervous and uncomfortable, he tended to be clumsy and awkward.

"Is Trevor a toad?" A boy asked from a few feet away.

Neville looked at the boy with a startled look. "Y…Ye…yes, yes Trevor is a toad…"

The boy turned to what could only be described as a giant white wall of muscle, teeth and claws. "Told you it was someone's pet. Better go stop Dorvan from eating it before it's too late." The wall made a grunting noise, and moved off much faster than Neville thought a wall could move, towards another similar wall that was standing beside the train.

"Hi! I'm Hadrian Snowlock!" The boy held out his hand to greet Neville.

"Ne…Neville… erm, Longbottom." Neville took the boy's hand and shook it.

"Please to meet you Neville. Is this your Grandmother?"

"Umm…yes, yes, this is my Grandmother, Madam Augusta Longbottom."

"Madam Longbottom. It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm Hadrian Snowlock."

"It is nice to meet you as well Mr. Snowlock."

The large white wall had returned and after a soft growl and a grunt, handed Neville his errant toad.

"Borash says that Dorvan wasn't planning to eat Trevor, said he didn't look tasty enough. Which is odd, because I've seen some things Dorvan has eaten, and in my opinion they looked much worse than Trevor here. Hey! Do you want to come sit with me on the train?"

Neville was more than a little surprised by the sudden change in the direction of the conversation, but readily agreed.

"Awesome! The girls were out numbering me four to one, but with you by my side we may just survive the ride to Hogwarts. Let me help you with your trunk." Hadrian grabbed Neville's trunk, and started walking toward the train. "It was nice to meet you Madam Longbottom!" He called over his shoulder.

Madam Longbottom had to suppress a smile from forming on her lips. Perhaps young Neville had just had a small stroke of luck, thank Merlin. "Take care of yourself Neville, I don't want to hear of you having any problems. Do you hear?"

"Yes Gran."

"Alright, off with you then, go join your new friend."

Madam Longbottom watched as Neville hurried to catch up to Hadrian and let herself smile a small smile. Yes, perhaps Neville's luck was looking up in deed.

-DCM-

Narcissa Malfoy had her nose in the air as she walked towards the train. She held herself as though she was above those around her, and they should feel privileged to be in her presence. She took mincing steps as she walked, meant to make her look elegant and dainty while trying to show off her near perfect looks. The effect was ruined though by the snobby sneer and look of contempt that was almost permanently etched on her face.

"Come Draco."

"Yes mother." The blonde boy that followed in her wake tried to effect the same attitude as his mother, but came off as more of a ponce than a prince.

When they reached the entrance at the front of the train, the woman turned to her son. "You have the portkey your father gave you handy?"

"Yes I do."

"Don't lose it, it is set directly to your father's study, and is specially made to break through any anti-portkey charms. Just find the Potter twerp, activate it, and give it to him."

"Yes mother."

"Don't do anything to embarrass me or your father while you are at school."

"Yes mother."

"Make sure you show the other children that the name Malfoy still means power. Too many people seem to have forgotten that fact in the last couple years."

"Yes mother."

"Good. I need to go or I'll be late. We'll see you during the holidays."

"Yes mother."

The blonde ponce waited until he was sure his mother was gone, and then seemed to relax more than a little. He looked around the platform at the other families briefly before turning back to the train.

It was with a small wicked smile that he began boarding. He knew it was time for another Malfoy to reign at Hogwarts.

-DCM-

Albus Dumbledore sat at the head of the table in the staff room and looked around at the assembled staff. Preparations for the coming year had been extensive. While each of the staff had been informed that the school would be attended by the newest Wyvern Council members, none of them had been told Hadrian and Daphne's true names. That was only to be told to their head of house, and then it would only be given in the utmost and strictest of confidence.

Albus glanced at the resident Potions Master, Severus Snape, and hoped beyond hope that that didn't turn out to be Professor Snape. If it did, then telling him would have to be reconsidered.

It wasn't that Albus thought Severus wouldn't fulfill his duty as head of house to them. It was more that Severus still had not put the grudge with Hadrian's birth father behind him. If he came to know that Hadrian Snowlock was in fact Harry Potter, then old feelings of resentment might resurface once again, and that could cause all manner of unpleasantness.

Severus had been more than overjoyed when told the news that another Potter wouldn't be attending in the fall. So overjoyed in fact, that he hadn't put up much of a fuss at the additional arrangements made for Hadrian and Daphne and their guards. He had actually been slightly cowed by the thought of teaching members of the Wyvern Council.

"Headmaster?"

"Yes Minerva?"

"How often will members of the Council be coming to Hogwarts? And do we have a set schedule of when they will be here, how long they will be staying, and what they will be teaching the students?" Always one for the details, Minerva liked to know in advance as much as possible.

"Each visiting member will be staying about a week, and while I don't know everything they will be teaching yet or when each will be coming, I do know that Lord Braelik and Lady Anya are due the last week of September, and will be lecturing on Dwarven healing. Lady Shoshan and Lord Torak will be here the last week of October, with Lady Shoshan giving some lectures on spirituality, and Lord Torak, who is a Blade Master, will be giving some classes on swordsmanship. Beyond that, the schedule is not set yet. As soon as I know Minerva, I will let everyone know."

Albus again looked around at the staff. "Are there any other questions before we end the meeting?" No one seemed to have one, so Albus decided to end the meeting a little early. "If that is all then, let us be done for now, and we can all return to our preparations for the coming year. "

The staff all left and Albus himself stood up from his chair and made to leave the room through another door that lead to his office.

"Headmaster?"

Albus turned and looked towards the staff door and saw Severus standing in the door way looking at him.

"Yes Severus?"

"You are sure Harry Potter won't be attending this fall? This isn't some trick or grand surprise you are planning is it?" Severus looked at the headmaster with a piercing gaze.

"No Severus, Harry Potter will not be attending Hogwarts this fall. Or ever for that matter."

Severus closed his eyes and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Only after he had exhaled fully did he open his eyes and look at the headmaster again. He had a rare small smile on his face. He nodded at the headmaster, turned and with a billow of his cloak, exited the room.

Albus stared after the man for a moment before turning and walking into his office. He sat behind his desk and steepled his hands in front of his face while he pondered the exchange with the bitter and angry professor that he had just had. If he ever learned that Hadrian was really Harry, then things could go pear shaped in a hurry. Perhaps, just perhaps some last minute changes were needed.

Albus pondered the situation for several more minutes, mulling over the idea that was forming in his mind. "That may just work." He finally decided. He quickly grabbed a quill and some parchment and wrote a missive to an old colleague and friend. "Fawkes? Would you mind carrying this to Horace for me please?" The phoenix trilled affirmatively in response.

Albus handed the note to the waiting phoenix and thanked him. "Please wait for a response." With another trill, the phoenix disappeared in a burst of flames.

Albus walked back to his desk and sat down in his chair. He removed his half-moon glasses and rubbed at his tired eyes. He hoped he could make the arrangements quick enough for the start of the new term in the morning.

-DCM-

Flanked by his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle, Draco had walked up and down the train three times looking for Potter. He had looked in each of the compartments, and had even asked around, but no one had seen Harry Potter. The only compartment he had not been able to see in, was the one in the middle of the train that had an outside door. It also had a door to the inside of the train, but the door had been locked.

He was making his way back to his own compartment when he saw the Bones girl and her friend enter into the middle compartment with their trunks in tow. He had caught a glimpse of the compartment, and saw that it was much larger and more comfortable looking than any others on the train.

'_If anyone deserves that compartment, it is me, not that Bones girl and her half-blood friend! I am a Malfoy after all, and therefore I deserve the best!' _ He hurried and grabbed the door and opened it before it could fully close.

"What are you doing in my compartment?" Draco knew the best way to get people to do his bidding was to put them in their place quickly. His two goons had hurriedly caught up to him and were now flanking him.

Draco looked at the other occupants of the room. There were four girls, and two boys. He recognized the Longbottom squib almost right away, but the others were unfamiliar. He moved boldly further into the room. "Well? What are you doing in my compartment?"

"Your compartment?" The boy that was sitting beside the squib looked up at Draco in surprise.

Draco turned and sneered at the boy. That was when he got a good look at him. He had raven-black hair, and a scar on his forehead! This must be Potter! Draco quickly reached into his pocket and removed the charmed medallion his father had given him. While withdrawing it from his pocket he murmured the activation phrase. Then with a nasty sneer at the boy, threw it at him.

Draco watched triumphantly as the boy's eyes widened in surprise at the medallion being thrown at him. No one questioned a Malfoy, not even a Potter.

Draco's victory was short lived and hallow. Just as the medallion was about to hit the boy, a very large furry white arm reached out and grabbed the portkey from the air. Then with a grunt of surprise, the said white arm disappeared with a pop.

Draco looked to where the arm had come from in surprise. By the time he looked back at the boy, it was just in time to see an angry face getting closer very rapidly. This was quickly followed by a fist, and then Draco saw nothing.

-DCM-

Lucius Malfoy sat in a chair in his study holding a glass of fire whiskey in his hand. He was pondering how to handle the Potter brat when he got there. Perhaps a couple rounds of the '_cruciatus' _curse would be best to lead off with. Yes, best to soften him up quickly. It would also serve to put the boy in his proper place. Lucius was facing away from where the Potter boy would be arriving. Best to keep him in suspense for a few brief moments when he first arrives. After all, the boy needed to be put in awe of his new guardian.

The wards on the manor notified Lucius of the incoming portkey. Excellent, Draco found him already. Almost immediately, there was the tell-tale sound of someone arriving. "Welcome to Malfoy Manor, Mr. Potter." Lucius paused for dramatic effect. "Welcome to your new home." Lucius withdrew his wand from his cane and slowly stood. He again paused, then with a flourish, turned and cast his spell.

What he saw both shocked and surprised him. Instead of a small eleven year old boy. Standing in his study was a ten foot white Yeti. A ten foot Yeti that was growling at him. A ten foot Yeti that he had just hit with a pain curse. A ten-Merlin-cursed-foot Yeti that looked very angry.

The last thing Lucius saw was the claws on the monster's right hand unsheathe, and then that same right hand become a white blur as it moved toward him. Then Lucius saw no more.

-DCM-

Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody stood on the Hogsmeade station platform waiting for the Hogwarts train to arrive.

"Didn't take long did it?"

Alastor shook his head. "No, it didn't." Both knew they were referring to Malfoy Sr. and Malfoy Jr's attempt at kidnapping. The problem was that they attempted to kidnap a foreign Lord. And not just any foreign Lord, but a member of the Wyvern Council. They were in deeper trouble than they knew, and Amelia and Moody were at the station to pick up the Malfoy Scion and take him to a holding cell at the Ministry until everything could be worked out.

Amelia knew that Draco would probably get off with little more than a stern warning, and Lucius would probably have to spend enough gold to get out of spending time in Azkaban, but politically Lucius had just committed suicide. He had already been weakened greatly in the last five years, so this latest misstep would mean the end of his carrier.

"Will Lucius survive his injuries?"

Alastor smirked. "Unfortunately. Cept, he won't be as….pretty…"

Amelia shook her head. "Pity."

They both turned and watched as the train turned the last corner and came into view. It only took a few minutes until the platform was swarmed with students disembarking the train. They made their way to the center carriage that had the external door and waited as it was opened and the first years climbed out.

"Auntie?" Amelia turned and looked as Susan. She appeared normal, and had a bright smile on her face. "What are you doing here?"

"We are here to pick up Mr. Malfoy. Have you seen him?"

Susan hesitated, and then blushed. "Oh, he's...umm…hanging around…" Her answer was more than a little evasive and Amelia's eyebrows rose while the girls in the group broke down into giggles.

"Firs' Yers' Ore here!" came Hagrid's call.

Susan took one last look at her Aunt and then moved quickly to join the growing group of students gathering around the game keeper. Amelia turned to Moody with a sigh.

"Do you see him Alastor?"

"Aye" he didn't elaborate any further.

"And where is he?" Exasperation was very evident in her voice.

"Oh, he's hanging around…"

"Hanging around?"

"Yep, in the central corridor…stuck to the ceiling…" there was another long pause "naked."

Amelia was quiet for a long count of five as she digested that last bit of information. "Naked?"

"Naked."

"Please tell me he is at least face up."

"Nope."

"Shite."

"Yep."

-DCM-

Hadrian and Daphne watched passively as the students were sorted. Hermione and Neville had gone to Gryffindor, and Susan and Hannah had gone to Hufflepuff. There had been quite a bit of discussion as to how the students were to be sorted. With one red-haired boy claiming they would have to wrestle troll. Hermione had almost had a heart attack at the thought of not being prepared if it was a test of some sort. Daphne had finally taken pity on the girl and whispered in her ear. Hermione had looked at Daphne, and when the blonde girl had simply smiled and nodded, she had visibly relaxed.

"Snowlock, Daphne"

Hadrian felt Daphne squeeze his arm before letting go and walking up to where Professor McGonagall stood holding a battered hat. After sitting on the stool, the hat was placed on her head. It only took a few minutes, and then the hat called out "GRYFFINDOR!" Daphne smiled and gave the hat back to the professor and moved to take her place with the rest of her new house. Hermione grabbed her in a quick hug as she sat down.

"Snowlock, Hadrian"

Hadrian walked up to the stool and sat down. He felt the hat placed on his head, and waited patiently to be sorted.

'_Hmmm, what do we have here? Ah, young Snowlock, it seems you are much more than you seem on the outside, yes?'_

'_Yes, ummm…'_

'_Worry not Winter's Child, your secrets are safe with me. Let's take a look and see where you would fit best…interesting…he very healthy dose of loyalty to your betrothed and to your family…while smart, you are not Ravenclaw material, and…Merlin forbid you go to Slytherin, there wouldn't be any students left in that house within a week. Ah here we go…a very large streak of jumping in with both feet, much like your betrothed. Perhaps it would be best to put you in…' _"GRYFFINDOR!"

Hadrian jumped up with a bright smile on his face and handed the hat back to Professor McGonagall then made his way quickly over to the far table. As he took a seat next to Daphne he saw her smile warmly at him. He shook hands with Neville and Hermione and waved at Susan and Hannah at the Hufflepuff table. They had all agreed on the train to remain friends no matter what house they were sorted into, and were each happy with the outcome.

The sorting finished with the red-headed boy being sorted into Gryffindor, and a dark skinned boy being sorted into Slytherin. The headmaster then stood and made a few odd remarks and the feast began. Hadrian saw that Amnock and Dorvan were standing to either side of the double doors at the entryway to the Great Hall, and turned and saw Borash standing by the wall behind him. Hadrian tilted his head, and gestured in greeting. Borash showed a few teeth and gestured back.

Hadrian turned back to his meal with a laugh.

"What' so funny?" Daphne was curious.

"Borash."

"Borash?"

"Yea, he told me I needed to eat more because I was too skinny, and might be mistaken for the leg of a Skraeling."

Neville eyed him from across the table. "He said all that by waving at you?"

"It's a bit of a loose translation, but yea…" Hadrian scooped some potatoes onto his plate.

"Bohrorahm?" The red-head down and across the table tried to speak while continuing to put food into his mouth.

Hadrian looked at him briefly, then turned away in surprise at the spectacle the boy was putting on with his food. "Borash. The Yeti behind me is named Borash. The two by the doors are Amnock and Dorvan."

"Yeti?" a dark skinned Indian girl named Parvati asked. "Why are there Yeti here?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story, but since we are getting acquainted, Daphne and I can tell it while we eat…"


End file.
